


Oceanbound

by lindam2254



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Mermaids, Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, On Stranger Tides Elements, Pre-Curse of the Black Pearl, Young Will Turner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 58,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22055308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lindam2254/pseuds/lindam2254
Summary: During his voyage to find his father Will Turner has his first ever brush with the supernatural...long before ending up pulled into the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow. Reuniting with this unnatural occurrence on a visit to the infamous pirate town Tortuga.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	1. The Girl In the Water

_**A/N:** _

_**Added cover art is edited by me, under my other username NessaGorneth (that I mainly use in youtube, and while editing pictures that I publish).** _

* * *

Young William Turner hung from the rigging as he gazed at his surroundings. Staring back at the blinding sun from under his raised hand in between glancing about the vast ocean opening in front of him, before his eyes were cast down to look over his shoulder at the numerous crew members walking about the ship's deck. Kept busy by their duties, where the but a few months ago hired cabin boy was content to loiter about the cordage high above the main deck like whenever he’d managed to sneak away from his own despite of the ever watchful eyes of the Captain or the First Mate of _the Sea Shepherd._ The boy who'd dreamed of following his father's footsteps all his life as long as he could remember finding it much more fascinating to simply gaze at the never ending horizon of the glimmering blue than to spend his time in fulfilling the puny tasks that awaited him back on deck, when he'd signed on to become part of the crew of Captain Phillips him to have expected to be given more to do than to be a mere gofer of the other sailors, someone who took care of all the small jobs that no one else did...Like scrubbing the decks from day to night till his hands were all chafed and full of blisters. Just like his mum had made him do many times while still back at England....

Will's heart lurched at the painful recollection of her mother. Of her face and voice. Her smile and the sad thought of how his life had been not but a five short months ago when he'd still been living with her, happily...All until the illness that had taken her from him. In one night, without a warning her to have simply drifted into sleep and never woken again, the boy to have found her from her bed the following morning although but a few hours prior he'd been within that same room bidding her a good night. And now, she was no more. Amelia Turner was gone. And finally, at the end of two whole years of struggling with her affliction had left her son all alone in the world after many years of continuing to raise him all on her own...After her husband had vanished without a trace, abandoning them. To have departed to one of the voyages out at the sea aboard the merchant ship he'd worked aboard without a single note left behind, never to return back home.

For seven years after his father's disappearance Will had ached to grow up, faster by each passing year that brought him closer to eventual adulthood, so that he would finally be old enough to go to sea himself. To leave home and go search for his father, who hadn't sent a single letter to them during the time that he was away to inform them of his well being or whereabouts, his fate remaining thus a total mystery to the Turner family as long as they were left living on their own, just the two of them. His mother to have made the eventual decision of leaving the small town in Glasgow where Will had been born and moving to England where they had found themselves a new place to settle in, Amelia managing to support them with the little money she got from working as an embroiderer at a local linen weaving mill. But as had been proven not long after Will had turned eleven years old, her health started to get worse, and by time led to her death regardless of the treatment her son had tried to arrange for her with the scarce earnings he himself had been able to make by running errands for the doctor of the town, who in exchange had overseen Amelia's treatment in form of some needed remedies they'd been able to afford. But sadly nothing had saved her from succumbing to the disease, and even after so much time Will still couldn't stop blaming himself over her passing. He should've done more for her, helped her more around the house instead of simply living a life of a carefree little boy when his mother had exhausted herself in working in expense of her own health...And now she would never come back. Just like his father hadn't....Just because he had hated to pay heed to his mum's little requests of doing chores, such as mopping the floors.

But as unheard of as it was, there had been a silver lining to Will's mother's death. Despite of how miserable and alone it had left the lad, her mother wasn't with him any more, and therefore couldn't have further stopped him from following after his father in order to go find him from the wide world the woman had for years regarded as too terrifying for the young Will to face. It had deprived her of a husband after all, and Amelia hadn't been able to bear the thought of allowing her son to walk out of her door, only to be claimed by the perils of the sea and never to be seen again by her like his father before him. But now as her dead and laying buried far away in a tiny cemetery in England, Will had been given the unavoidable freedom to choose for himself, and after an unexpected letter had finally arrived not but a short week after his mother's burial bearing his father's name and encasing a strange gold medallion, the overjoyed boy had taken it as a sign for him to finally leave the safety of his home to go search not only for William Turner senior, but answers. After he'd waited four more weeks for a response to his own letter in which he'd informed of his father of Amelia's death without however receiving one, he'd packed the little belongings he'd had and secretly left the house of their neigbour Mrs. Balthazar in middle of the night, who'd taken him under her care at the time and ran off. Signing up to the first ship he's stumbled upon at the docks and which he'd learned to sail to the Caribbean, from where he knew his father’s letter to have been sent from by the little information found in the few written lines Mr. Turner had provided his son with in addition to the petition of keeping the included, skull decorated locket safe for him....As well as the request of making sure the medallion wouldn’t come near the Caribbean waters through Will trying to find him. But naturally the grieving son had not either cared for the warnings written into the note, and his father's pleads to stay away from the seas had but encouraged the lad to set out to begin his search of him...not however knowing at the time that such decision to leave everything he knew and loved behind marked as the definitive beginning of a lifelong adventure.

"Turner!"

Will flinched as the givenly aggravated voice of the First Mate sounded from below him. The boy slowly looking down to see the indeed vexed Mr. Gallagher to be staring at him with a displeased frown, his arms securely folded across his bare chest as he then nodded the boy to come down. Will, who'd in a way learned to respect the man through plain fear he indeed aspired to rouse amongst the crewmen, swallowing as he obediently climbed the shroud down and set foot onto the deck again. Standing in front of the possibly terrifying man who was known to even go as far as throw a negligent sailor overboard (or so the other crewmembers claimed to young William, after sailing with the man for years), Mr. Gallagher sizing the lad up for a moment until his arms went behind his back, the man's gaze turning into a glare and caused shivers to run down Will's spine, Mr. Gallagher taking hold of the lapels of his jacket as brought him slightly closer. Angry.

"And what were you up to now up in there yet again, eh boy? I believe I made myself clear what would happen if I ever found you loitering about again", the man murmured, Will simply returning his hard stare without a word, as quite honestly didn't come up with any excuses to save himself from the bad tempered First Mate's hatred. Him simply looking down meekly, at the glimpse of his medallion him quickly only pushing it back into hiding under his shirt collar before said the only thing there was to say to have the man’s vice like grip release him and have him leave the boy about his business again.

"I'm sorry, sir."

"Apparently not sorry enough, since this is exactly what you said to me the last time I caught you assuming the duties of a loafer. Do you _want_ to be keelhauled, lad?"

"No, sir." 

"And yet, I think that might be just what you need to make yourself more a man of your word the next time you speak to me..."

"Mr. Gallagher, sir", one of the crewmembers now cut in, Mr. Cummings, a considerably younger man in his thirties, and who was rather new to sailing himself after but a year of serving in Captain Phillips' crew. Him striding over to them before discreetly freed Will from the peeved First Mate's hold by bringing the lad behind him upon facing Mr. Gallagher, Cummings flashing him a soothing smile as beckoned towards Will dismissively. "All is well sir, he's but a boy. His first time at sea, it is given that the lad is inquisitive and mesmerized by her wonders, as were we all upon setting sail for the very first time...You remember your first journey, now don't you Gallagher?"

Mr. Gallagher pouted a bit in distaste, but yielded with a single leer given to Will. "And despite of your perhaps intelligible attempt to save this young man from given punishment, I content myself to simply warn each of you that our Captain suffers no loiterers aboard _The Sea Sheperd_...And I even less. Keep an eye on lad, because if I find him evading work one more time, it is you Mr. Cummings who shall be made responsible."

Cummings said nothing and simply smiled after the First Mate who then stalked across the deck, eventually vanishing somewhere below, and giving the other man a chance to turn around to face grinning William. However instead of returning the boy's innocent simper slapping him gently on the back of his head, Will looking down briefly ashamed.

"Honestly now, you have to start behaving yourself. It's been over five months now lad, and I cannot keep looking after you till eternity...In this line of work you have to grow up quicker than boys like you usually would", Cummings stated, casting a castigating look down at Will who answered with an understanding nod. Cummings then simply sighing before broke into an eventual smile, spotting the mop and the bucket the boy had previously abandoned by the gunwale and shoved the utensil into his less than eager hands. Beckoning towards the floorboards before walked away himself, to return to his own post. "Lively now Will. Make your mum proud by cleaning this deck squeaky clean like she would've, and you may earn yourself a cup of grog for later tonight..."

Suddenly much more motivated Will sent the man off with an enthusiastic smile, with one more fleeting thought of his mother and father him placing a hand on top of the covered medallion before dropped the mop into the bucket. As urged resuming his task of swabbing the deck like he did every day, everything returning back to the usual course when everyone remained occupied in their own tasks, soon enough Captain Phillips emerging from his quarters and ascended up to the quarterdeck after enjoying his usual afternoon nap before tea time. Will listening to the man giving orders to the crew before he was lost to his own musings again, them mostly circling around that mysterious medallion his father had sent him.

Will had never seen anything like it, the beautifully crafted, but somewhat terrifying engraved skull adorning the locket intriguing him as much as unsettling him deep within. The medallion having to be a part of some treasure his father had stumbled upon during his adventures at sea, as what else could such a peculiar necklace be? Will knew little of people of upper class, as his mum and him hadn't had many chances to familiarize themselves with the higher circles taken how in fact poor they'd been during his time of growing up, but Will couldn't imagine any woman of a rich background to be seen anywhere wearing such a medallion. Leaving but the only conclusion that it must've originated from a treasure, but what the boy couldn't understand was why it seemed to be so important to his father...Important enough to be sent all the way to England to his long since estranged son, even Will hadn't heard a single word about the man till the day the letter had arrived to the Turner house....Leaving him to wonder what was it about that odd medallion that had driven his father to part from it, and to ask Will to keep it _safe,_ exactly the meaning of that particular request not making sense to the lad. But Will was determined to do just the opposite of what Mr. Turner had asked and find him, wherever he was...and ask him himself. But taken what his father's enigmatic words written into the letter about the medallion had made him feel, he had to make sure no one aboard this ship would catch a glimpse of it....Also because it couldn't be denied how much it reminded of an item a certain type of a sordid, unlawful individual all men sailing in these waters feared would have on their person...Also Will to have considered the possibility of the locked to have once belonged to an actual pirate, which wouldn't make him get to the better side of the First Mate any more than he already had. Not to mention the crew, who most likely would all wish to hang him then and there, thinking him to be a pirate too.

Ever since receiving that medallion Will had however always bypassed the frightening possibility of his father to have met his end in the hands of possible buccabeers, if this locket that was to be kept safe had ended up in his possession, meaning that the individuals from whom Will had been tasked to guard the necklace from were exactly the ones his father had gotten it from...From some pirates with whom his father had met with some time in his life, and because of whom he had suddenly reached out to his son after years of not staying out of his life, Will not being able to deny that although his father's fate did scare him a little, he was also interested to learn what Mr. Turner's tie to this medallion was...As much as he wanted to hear what the man had been up to all these years....But most of all why he had left him and his mother. And now showed up again after such a long time. As it couldn't be just a coincidence. Will was sure about that as he now dragged the mop across the weathered boards, thirst of an adventure once more running strong in him with his blood and he was filled with determination, the highly likely fact that he may never find his father from this unknown place he'd never traveled nor been before diminishing when he courageously decided to never give up. That would it take one, five or even ten years or more he would find his father. Knowing that he was alive, somewhere...waiting for him.

"Captain, there's something in the water!"

Will snapped his head up to look at the sailor stationed in the crow's nest, seeing him to be pointing to starboard for the surprise of all who'd heard his previous announcement, and who were then lured to gaze over the railing because of it. Men gathering around to see whatever the scout had spotted down in the waves, but as Will also then left the mop on the deck to run over to the crewmen currently scouring the water with their eyes, he neither saw anything. Just the foam that hedged on top of the surfs which the large hull of the vessel created while pushing forward in the abruptly risen breeze, Will raising his hand too late to prevent his hat from ending up swept by the wind and it fell into the sea, after searching the ocean himself for a brief moment Captain Phillips peering up to the sailor on the lookout questionably.

"There's nothing there. Just tricks of the eyes caused by the sun", he hollered in response, the ensuing murmur of the crewmen speaking of the same perception, as everyone saw nothing in the water. A moment passing as the men took another instant to let their eyes scan the ocean in wonder, but just as Captain Phillips begun to order the sailors to get back to their stations, Will heard Mr. Cummings to release a deep breath of utmost dismay by his side. The lad first looking up to him and saw the man to be staring somewhere behind them with wide, shock-ridden eyes before he observed several other men to as well turn around and start to point to something in the port side that caused an utter silence to fall over the deck next. After more and more bewildered gazes were cast to the direction Mr. Cummings was staring at, Will finally turning on his heels himself, finding himself utterly petrified when he came to share his fellow crewmen’s awe when his eyes now set upon the cause of the spread outrage. Not believing them.

On top of the gunwale, completely nude and with the most alluring smile on her lips, sat a woman. Her long, wet locks draping around her shoulders and cascading along her back and chest, puddling into her lap and all the way to the deck in small coils as in her hand she hold a hat. Will's hat, that just a moment before had been swept away by the breeze and dropped into the sea, the woman inclining her head at the gawking men who couldn't turn their eyes away from her. Too mesmerized by her divine beauty that was out of this world, everything about her captivating each and every one of the sailors who were currently staring at the lovely creature perched on top of the railing, too enthralling to look at for any of the men to even consider where exactly had she appeared from in middle of the ocean with no mainland or islands nearby. Not anyone coming to question why she was suddenly sitting there, naked with not any kind of proper clothing in her person, only Will finding himself wondering about the woman's appearance enough to level a quizzical look to her way. Just as he noticed Mr. Cummings to swallow and take a pace towards the golden haired goddess who was eyeing at the men curiously, even seductively. Her smile that never ceased possibly beguiling as it attracted the undivided attention of the crew, not only Mr. Cummings but several others also now discovering themselves to be approaching this mystery woman who said not a word. Simply tilted her head to the other side as Mr. Gallagher was the first to get over his daze enough to walk over to the woman, with one more look given to her bare limbs covered but by her soaked tresses the man stretching out a hand to receive the hat the woman was offering to him, only to take hold of her wrist with an indeed spellbound grin as measured the woman with glazed eyes. Will watching how she shied not away from him nor his too friendly hands that now moved on her arms, to bring her closer, their stare not breaking, when it seemed to Will the First Mate to be totally entranced by the look of the woman's sea blue eyes. As if bewitched.

"Who are you?" Mr. Gallagher asked, his voice as much as his expression signifying his state of utter rapture while at the presence of this woman, Will letting out an astounded breath himself as he as well as the other men then observed many other women to pop out from behind the gunwale. Each even more beautiful than the previous, and all causing the same effect amongst the crewmen, not one man discovering themselves having enough self-control not to near these enchanting ladies, despite of the fact that all of them had just indeed emerged from nowhere other than the ocean. Out of all the people aboard only Will starting to direct this time around confused looks at the women who all managed to lure the men over to the railing, as if put under a spell, and as Mr. Cummings finally also made a move to go to one of the gorgeous creatures currently locking gazes with him, Will took hold of his shirt. To stop him from approaching, suddenly having a bad inkling about the situation as the First Mate continued to talk to the first appeared woman, returning her gaze as she eyed at him somewhat oddly now. Like an animal looked at a pray, not that any of them would've noticed due to their daze, while her fingers rose to touch the rough surface of his bearded cheeks. Smoothing them, deepening the enchantment.

"What's your name?" Mr. Gallagher asked again, his voice possibly breathless, laced by temptation to lean closer to claim those positively compelling lips of the woman whose gaze now fell. Her hands retreating, settling onto the man's shoulders and eventually drifting down to his arms, Will watching her irises then to snap up to his. Somewhat hungrily, full of threat.

"A monster."

A breath of utmost horror then erupted from the lips of everyone as in the same moment the woman spoke she opened her mouth as if to be the first to pull the First Mate into a kiss, instead however her eyes flashing before her blue irises turned close to white. Instead of perfect set of teeth fangs pushing out of her gums and Will saw her delicate fingernails to turn into actual claws, her moment ago so lovely features of utter beauty not even Goddess Aphrodite couldn't have possessed now distorted into a monstrous grimace of a unholy creature as a bloodcurdling hiss erupted from her mouth. Followed by several other equally terrifying inhuman noises that left from the lips of the other women who at the exact same moment changed shape and turned into similar type of monsters in a blink of an eye, too swiftly for the truth to sink into the minds of the captivated sailors until it was too late. Will and the other crewmen who'd stayed farther away from the women now watching in fear as the first to appear woman now yanked the First Mate's head to the side, only to inflict upon the onlookers nightmares to last for years by sinking her teeth into his flesh before wrapping her arms around the screaming man and plunged into the sea with him. Another, but a single beat of a heart lasting silence befalling over the men as a few other sailors were then as well dragged to their demise, Captain Phillips standing in middle of the deck of his ship in utter shock until he also came to understand what these being were. His trembling voice reflecting utter terror as it voiced out the regrettable thoughts of all of his men, skeptical.

"Mermaids!"

The implausible word echoed in Will's mind in disbelief. In dismay, as he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that mythical creatures such as mermaids were actually real, but he didn't have to as he then witnessed those commonly in stories regarded deadly creatures to start to wreak havoc aboard _the Sea Shepherd._ The lad filling with dread of his own as in an utter daze followed the mermaids to jump at the defenseless men in unnatural speed from as far as straight from the ocean before using their claws or teeth to incapacitate their prey, where some men were simply hauled over the railing by the strange vine like appendages that shot out of the creatures’ hands to apprehend the sailors trying to escape. Terror spreading in an instant as no man was left guessing what these creature were and what they could do, every seaman to have heard the legends of mermaids well and knowing to fear these beings from the bottom of their hearts. It however proving hopeless for anyone to even try to run, as after the first shock had subsided and a handful of men had been deprived of their lives, more and more mermaids started to leap out of the water around them and attacked the unsuspecting sailors from behind.

Screams of pain and dread filled the air, but got swiftly overpowered by the unnatural screech of the mermaids as Will was forced to run about the ship in a frenzy along with his fellow crewmembers. His eyes darting about the vessel in panic, all that he was able to hear being the monstrous utterances of the mermaids as he observed these sirens to continue to crawl onto the deck over the gunwale before lunging at the men in unison. Rendering them defenseless, and not any pistol or sword was fast enough to deal a deadly blow in self-defense before their wielders were proven mostly inferior to the fangs of these monsters, Will's heart feeling like leaping out of his chest as he watched the mermaids to practically pray on the sailors right there on the deck and taking actual bites out of them before eventually dragging them into the ocean to be completely devoured by these man eating beings. No place proving safe enough to run, but still Will raced across the blood stained deck, trying to steer clear of the creatures that seemed like infesting the ship from prow to stern, the lad feeling _the Sea Shepherd_ to start to swerve as he now witnessed several of those appendages to latch onto the railings, possibly to bring the ship down in order for the rest of the mermaids to be able to have their share of the evident pray Will now finally understood the crew to have become. Nothing comparing to the horror he was now under as he avoided the claws of the creatures that scraped his clothes when he hurtled across the deck, upon dodging one of the appendages shooting across the air to capture him, Will crashing against the railing. Only to direct a quick look over it and seeing the sea below to be completely swarming with dozens and dozens of more bloodthirsty mermaids hungry for some human flesh, Will having time but to swallow as the significant screech that then emanated from in front of him alarmed the lad and he twirled around. Only to have his eyes widen as he saw another mermaid to drag herself over the railing, her predator eyes fixating onto him, and he didn't have time to react or even plan to flee when he then saw the creature to prepare to strike. But just before the mermaid's weapon like appendage lashed at him and wrapped around his torso to yank him straight into her deadly claws, Mr. Cummings dashed from amongst the still alive men struggling against the invading mermaids. Pushing Will back with a cry that ordered the boy to run, just before Will saw the man to be captured in his stead, but Mr. Cummings' decision to sacrifice himself for him did little to save him, as in the same moment the man darted in front of Will to shield him, he accidentally bumped the boy. Causing Will to lose his balance just as the ship made a radical tilt to starboard and he felt his shoes skid across the slippery become deck, not but one terrified thought later Will plunging straight into the ocean and right in middle of the hunting mermaids. Will feeling himself crashing into the surging waves and started to flounder in panic, dread filling him as he instantly imagined to feel clawed hands to wrap around his ankles and legs to drag him further under, to drown, or to face fate much worse.

But when he finally dared to open his eyes to see the creatures that were surrounding _the Sea Shepherd,_ he wasn't faced by several of them, but just one. As Will found himself sinking for a moment due to the fear that paralyzed him, him discovering himself to be approached by but one mermaid, but after mere one terrified gasp of air later he realized her to be not like the others. Considerably younger than the full grown mermaids currently tearing apart the ship, mere a child in his eyes not much older than he was probably, and who despite of Will's fears didn't attack him. or so he thought, as but a blink of an eye later Will witnessed her eyes to turn over and she now looked as much like a beast as the rest of her kid attacking the vessel, the lad flailing upward even more fiercely to get away from her once he saw her fangs draw out and she lunged at him her arms out. With but a single, strong flap of her tail later reaching his sinking body struggling to reach the surface, Will ladling and kicking helplessly as he dodged the mermaid's ssaults as it besieged him, its claws and teeth tearing his clothes and eventually depriving him of his jacket as it continued to come at him time and time again while encircling him amongst its endless dashes. Due to some miracle Will however managing to scramble back to the surface and drew in a greedy breath upon breaking through. Nevertheless him practically sensing the monster at his tail coming and before he could prepare Will could feel himself to be grabbed by those strong hands with inhuman strength and he was flung out of the water with a twirl, startled scream escaping the lad's lips as he saw the flash of a tail of the diving mermaid from the corner of his eye before found himself crashing on top of a piece of drift wood the other creatures' appendages had managed to rip apart from the ship's hull. As he coughed out the water he had swallowed and twirled on his back in panic, he had time but to draw in a scared breath as in the exact same moment the mermaid shot out of the water and the same monstrous screech filled the air as it came at him. About to kill him.

In his desperation Will's hands fumbled his vicinity, coming upon another piece of detached wood that once had been part of the gunwale and thwarted the mermaid's attack by ramming it against the creature, despite of her claws swinging at him ferociously with another hiss the mermaid plunged back into the water. Only to submerge yet again and again in an attempt to drag Will back under to be eaten, Will fighting courageously against her and succeeding in keeping himself alive long enough until the unexpected salvation came in a form of his medallion that currently was dangling in open view on his chest. After gaining but several small cuts and some bigger gashes during the struggle for his utmost surprise the mermaid then springing from the water once more quicker than he expected, however upon grasping the medallion in an attempt to draw the boy close enough for her to finally finish the struggling human off, Will heard another but this time clearly agonized screech to erupt the mermaid's lips as her fingers wrapped around the golden piece. As fast as the mermaid had jumped out of the ocean Will now watching how the creature immediately retreated, him seeing but her eyes return back to humane again before she dove into the waves again. Will releasing a terrified breath as instantly drew the greatly splintered wooden piece in between him and the sea in front of him, expecting another attack, but it didn't come.

After a few seconds of him simply listening to the throbbing of his fearful heart and taking in the claw marks adorning his floating device and his skin, Will finally saw the head of the creature to re-emerge. But not in a manner that would've encouraged the boy to raise his weapon to strike down the mermaid however, as for his following confusion Will saw her to simply appear from the water without attacking. Him returning the mermaid's stare, whose features weren't anymore contorted by the true monstrous form of her kind as the creature with a girl's face simply gazed back at him, as astounding as it was to the boy somewhat curiously even, although Will then saw her then direct a slight fearful look at his medallion before he watched her tail sweep past the water's surface behind her. Its scales shimmering in hues of green in the sun as much as Will was able to gather in that initially terrifying moment when he was faced with that mythical being, flinching back next as she now even further surprisingly rose from the water again, only to lean forward with no apparent further intent of killing him. Most likely in similar interest to Will's once his panic subsided a little and he was left to eye at the mermaid in utter wonder now as she also took him in with her pale irises, bemusing the moment ago utterly frightened boy even more by then tilting an inquisitive head at him before the mermaid's eyes then expressed caution. Proving that although just she had been about to eat him, in truth she was equally frightened of him as he was of her as much as interested, for this reason probably the mermaid next exerting further out of the waves to lean as close as to Will's face. The boy of undeniable 14 years of age not helping but in fact blushing when that absolutely gorgeous looking creature examined him, riveting him to his place so that even if she would've indeed ripped his throat open here and there he couldn't have been able to escape. But despite of what would've been logical to Will, he was then left to watch as the mermaid suddenly raised a hand, him not being sure had he actually seen real hesitation in the creature's eyes as her features now rendered back to dark and givenly threatening.

For some reason however Will still knew himself not to be in danger as against all reason he let himself to be examined by those pale, slick fingers....Their touch causing goosebumps to rise on his skin, unsettling him, but also intriguing him.Them tracing his features that undoubtedly were very similar and to a certain point identical to hers, even he should've taken this chance to kill the creature to save himself, Will still not helping but coming to think that perhaps this was what appeared to be a very young mermaid's first time encountering someone like him. A human. Gazing upon his kind for the very first time in his life just like he did her. Him however not finding his voice to speak as like the men previously up on the deck before this nightmare had begun, he discovered himself somewhat mesmerized by this mermaid he either couldn't now deny to be absolutely beautiful to look at. Her beauty however not removing the fact that she was downright deadly, and as she continued her subtle examination of him, Will then spotted a few other mermaids to have noticed them and to be making their way towards them. In fast speed, the mermaid in front of him seeing the same, and all Will heard then was a low hiss that sounded like a warning as it turned around to confront her fellow mermaids, just as Will made a startled jerk backwards and the piece of the hull capsized. Numerous ravenous screeches filling his ears even underwater as Will tried to take hold of the edge of the drift wood, breathing in notable amount of water due to the scare that the hands that now indeed grabbed him caused. Will's natural reaction to being dragged into his watery demise being to call for help as the mermaids started to pull him deeper and deeper into the depths despite of his tries to free himself from their powrfule grips, him feeling himself very much like a helpless worm on a hook which was soon to be devoured, and but a few few flounders later his eyes widened as he saw a third mermaid to appear. Eyes glowing, full of hunger as she dashed towards him, to finally kill him. 

But just when Will closed his eyes to prevent himself from witnessing how the creature bit into him, he felt his legs to be abruptly freed, something whizzing past him in great speed from both sides and causing him to make a slight roll as his eyes snapped back open. To hazily take in the familiar greenish tail that flapped past his vision in a swift arch the mermaid ade as she apparently chased away the rest of the bloodthirsty beings from Will's vicinity. The lad's relief however being but short-lived as it was then that he realized to continue sinking and not to be able to breath, and like before he started to desperately swim towards the surface. However finding it impossible, as by the time he'd gotten over his fear of getting mauled by the mermaids currently swirling but a little farther away from him his limbs had already lost their strength due to the lack of oxygen, and his hands now wrapped around his neck. His vision blurring as his lungs started to fill with more water with each attempt to draw air to ease the irritating burning of them. But on the brink of losing consciousness Will could feel sharp teeth to in fact sink into his arm and in the following instant he was whisked back to the surface, the ingested water coming out in violent gusts as he was then thrown back onto a piece of drift wood. As exhausted Will tried to take support from it he turned around to face his apparent savior, only to be taken aback completely when the young mermaid followed him out of the water and pressed him down, digging her nails into his chest, but just like before not to follow through with killing him. Will realizing what the mermaid's actions were for as he spied the three other mermaids who'd attempted to claim him as their prey to pop out of the waves as well to witness how the not yet full grown member of their herd brought her head down. Against Will's beliefs only supposedly feeding off of him by lightly sinking her teeth into him, and the meaning to the bite she'd inflicted upon him while underwater was explained to the lad then, him however losing strength to keep his head up that supported nicely the illusion of him getting eaten alive.

Will's eyes closed briefly, him feeling himself somewhat faint due to the exhaustion that suddenly took over him, but he managed to crack his eyes open long enough again to behold how the mermaid now drew apart from him. Locking serious gazes with him, appearing the most humane so far regardless of that blood that dripped down her jaw as exchanged a long, remarkable stare with him. The mermaid however next but shocking the boy again as her hand that had risen to his chest again retreated, to reveal the apparent scar that had been left on her skin by its previous contact with the golden medallion for Will's bemusement, but what dismayed him then was the way the mermaid leaned forth once more and actually landed her lips on his. Once again momentarily stupefied the about to faint lad simply laying there thunderstruck until after but a brief moment the mermaid drew away, her hand sliding off of him, the look in her eyes this time but hard as for the first time ever since first coming upon him, she spoke. Her current demeanor however signaling that regardless of the fact that she was letting him go, she was however very reluctant to do so.

"Live."

Will didn't neither have the chance nor willpower to respond, to ask why on earth had she kissed him and was saying that to him, and most importantly why wasn't she planning on feasting upon him like the rest of the mermaids had on the other crew members, as he could but barely see how in the following instant the mermaid retreated back into the water. However in that exact same moment all screeching of the other creatures and the still echoing screams of the dying sailors quieting down as unexpected blast of a cannon cut the air. Scaring the mermaids off and them to plunge into the safe waters of the ocean once the hull of _the Sea Shepherd_ was now pierced by the just fired ammunition from this mystery ship that Will fathomed to have come upon theirs. Perhaps to aid them, Will knew not. Him only knowing then that the girl, mermaid he'd just shared his first ever kiss with followed after her sisters and at the sound of the first blast disappeared into the sea as fast as had appeared, not to be seen again. But one more abashed thought of the kiss later the lad letting his head flop back down onto the hard surface of the drift wood after witnessing all of the several dozens of mermaids to scatter and vanish, just before he turned his gaze to his right and saw indeed a ship to be heading towards them. A ship with most unorthodox, black sails...Flying not colors any Empire or country recognized...Another kind of fear creeping over him at the sight of the unmistakable pirate flag fluttering in the wind before he blacked out, too tired from his previous endeavors to stay alive to remain awake to face this new in its own right equally frightening danger lurking just by _the Sea Shepherd_...About to claim them as well like those imaginary creatures from before and just as suddenly...Only that Will had just laid witness to the fact of mermaids not to be imaginary...But real. And it was his very first time ever meeting one. Proving that not all myths were just stories.


	2. Tortuga

Will walked along the bustling street, doing his best minding his own business amongst the surrounding sundry strifes of Tortuga that didn't seem to shy away especially from those having nothing to do with or slightest interest in getting involved with them…If you were unlucky enough to find yourself face to face with someone with nothing else against you but your at the present too disagreeable face. Will trailing after Jack and the man he'd been introduced to not more than a half an hour before after arousing him from the pigsty they'd found him sleeping in, the bits and pieces of the pair's conversation he'd overheard back at the inn long since forgotten mostly despite of the given suspicions of Jack's true motives that had welled up, as now he was but concerned by what the elderly pirate in Jack's company had vouched himself for; acquiring a qualified crew for them to take off after the Black Pearl. However as minutes passed and the man known to Will only as Joshamee Gibbs didn't seem to depart to fulfill his endowed task and instead satisfied himself in indulging into the said deprived pleasures of the pirate town along with his well met old acquiantance, Will's expectant gaze swiftly turned into an impatient leer as it peered at the two men in futile wait. After several moments of trailing after the pirate duo and simply observing the men to take the most of their excursion out in the debauchery that was the cityscape of Tortuga, Jack finally breaking free of the thralls of the ongoing revelry to take notice of the lad's miff that went against even the tiniest expectations of his about the young man by that overall sullen demeanor of his. But despite of such notion the pirate once again ignored his stare by beckoning around them joyfully, outright bypassing Will's displeasure.

"Lively now, mate! These be the last days of yer wild, libertine youth, so enjoy them before such rights are taken from ye once we find the girl and you're robbed of yer freedom and doomed to a life of an unsuspensful wowser!"

Will frowned, swatting away the tankard Jack had snatched from one of the passing drunkards and offered to him. "I did not come here to consort with such paltry pleasures…or whatever it is you want me to do."

"Aye, for me apparent presage. And it was merely a suggestion ye are more than welcome to disregard in favor of that ever uphold virtue ye like to swear by."

"We don't have time to stay, Jack. We have to get a crew and raise anchor _within_ a day, not _days_."

"Ye seem to take great delight in spouting out facts considered but self-evident to others."

"Then what are you doing? What is _he_ doing instead of going out to look for a crew as he promised?"

"Only a fool would go against Barbossa and his feared crew of the undead…So who would blame a man for wishing to savor the moment for a bit before rushing towards certain death…perhaps to endanger his life with no personal gain to this venture aside for yer own might I add?"

Indeed seeing a point in what Jack had said but still highly skeptical Will observed Jack to quell the confused Gibbs by shoving the drink rejected by the lad into his hand after his words had also reached his ears before turning the man away once he'd faced Jack with a surprised expression. All too happily Gibbs accepting the tankard and proceeding to empty it with a worrying stagger, where Will only turned up his nose in irritation...That and thanks to the strong odor still wafting from the elderly man, his current expression however doing the trick as with a jaded, deep sigh Jack tapped Gibbs on the shoulder. Will listening in on his murmured words as he urged the man to go fulfill his part on the made agreement, but quickly their exchange fell on deaf ears as suddenly Will's eyes averted to the side and randomly happened to pick up a clumsily painted sign from a few meters away. Mostly hidden in the shadows and a bit hard to make out, but the words written on it even if highly lacking caused his attention to be then fully riveted to it. Will's a moment ago but anxious heart now skipping a beat as something he hadn't thought of for a very long time then resurfaced in his mind, memories coming flooding back once his eyes skimmed over the few words of the sign in surprise and caused him to turn around. To seek out the mentioned establishment advertised in the sign, his breath sticking to his lungs as he then saw the torn, dirty strip of cloth nailed on top of the entrance and read the words scribbled onto it with bold letters; **_Midnight Auction. Rare Sale. Today's Item, Real Live Mermaids_**.

Will halted in bewilderment. His eyes dropping to take in the crowd that had formed in front of the butcher shop that looked more like a large barn inside the auction was taking place, both men and women flocking around the doorway excitedly as everyone tried to squeeze themselves inside the building. Only granted entry by the man in a surprisingly pricey getup whom Will deemed as the auctioneer. Loud murmur and zealous exclamations reaching the young man's ears, rising above even the common noise of the street which only added to Will's sparked curiosity, his eyes returning back to the banderol and in ever growing doubt but also fascination he continued to stare at it for a moment more. Hesitant whether or not it could be in any way possible what the auction was about, and if it was…the idea filling him with such awe and abrupt amazement when it had been years since he'd last thought of the creature he remembered to have saved his life in his youth…Of the very mythical being who'd spared his life. Him to have wondered about her from to time along the years, after arriving to Port Royal imagining seeing her or other mermaids swimming in the ocean near the coastline sometimes at dusk whenever he'd begun to suspect had it all been but a faraway dream, but always had regarded it as mere tricks of his mind…Ghosts of his memory whenever he'd spared a thought for that mermaid, and to now think there to actually be such creatures here, captured and sold in an auction…It left him conflicted. Even more skeptical. Will remaining so consumed in his stupor that he didn't see Jack to make his way through the throng of people after noticing him to have been left behind.

"Try to keep up will you? It would be a pity for me to inform yer dolly belle governor's daughter that ye were lost in a cay sized floating brothel when I wasn't looking."

"There's an auction there", Will answered flatly, taking aback the pirate who in the end only cast a disinterested look at the building after taking in the formed crowd himself, for once unimpressed by what he saw.

"It's nothing new, lad. There be many times auctions where some bloke tries their luck in selling off some trinkets or some other spoil they've come upon. Slaves and whatnot, ye take yer pick."

Will frowned, barely registering the bleakness of Jack's remark, as most of his response had escaped him. "Mermaids. It reads there they're selling mermaids."

"Mermaids!" Gibbs exclaimed suddenly, somewhat tensely as Will turned to look at him when he now rushed to his and Jack's side, actual fear deep within his eyes as they hold Will's for a moment, although his expression mirrored Jack's perfectly…Both of them returning Will's gaze in denial. "They be foul creatures. Divine beyond compare, aye, but as deadly. And impossible to capture without dying while trying."

"Rightly so…William, do ye know what a mermaid is?" Jack asked, him seing Will to actually stiffen at the sound of his question, but the young man managed to hide his true sentiments in regards to that inquiry well enough for him to let such an odd reaction go. Will assuming a composed mien as met with Jack's eyes, all the while recalling the young mermaid without whom he perhaps would've been eaten during his passage from England, if not simply drown…which in itself went against what he was then told about the creatures. "Just as Gibbs here told ye, mermaids are a vision of beauty, but perilous to encounter…Just as much as they want to enchant ye with their bewitching charms even more they wish to devour you down to the bone once they have ye hooked by their siren song…They're creatures of strength and guile, with no sense of mercy or benevolence, driven by mere craving for human flesh…Which makes them formidable monsters to come face with for any man trying to catch one without dying. So what they're selling there is just some common wenches dressed in makeshift tails and effects only making them seem like these creatures, where no real mermaids could be in sale at that auction despite of many to have tried to venture the waters they inhabit to capture one... It's just a lie to draw in those stupid enough to waste their coin in hopes of seeing one...yet alone buy one."

"Why would they lie about having real mermaids in sale when they truly don't?" Will asked, confused, ignoring the shivers that then ran along his back as he indeed came to recall the ferocious beings that had attacked the ship he'd sailed upon…killing and devouring everything that had come to their path. This time Gibbs offering him an explanation, however looking as doubtful as ever.

"For money, lad. There be stories. Tales not well known amongst the sea-farers, but common enough to add to the legend of these creatures."

"What kind of tales?"

"According to the stories if snared, mermaids are of grand value", Jack explained. "Not only as one of the most dangerous beings haunting every pirate's dreams, but as the creatures of myth and so forth perhaps even magical, a mere kiss of theirs being able to prevent a man from drowning, it is claimed that they can be a source for many ingredients used in enhancing human attributes as part of occult potions and remedies..."

This time around Will turned to eye at Jack, swallowing a little due to the somewhat ominous nature of his said words as the pirate instead was staring at the butcher shop with now a rather solemn expression. Unbeknownst to Will remembering his own run-ins with the said monsters, and not much of that was contradictory to anything he and Gibbs had just said about them...That they were exceedingly fascinating but equally terrifying beings. In part agreement Will's voice although curious sounding then quite tensed as Jack's delivery had given him a bad feeling about what he was next to be told.

"Remedies?"

"Of invigorating and amending properties…Mermaid blood for beauty and youth. Their scales and hair once harvested used for vitality and maintaining of health, their cartilage and grounded bones for better stamina and even improved male potency…Where consuming of their flesh is said to add to a mortal's lifespan. Not offering complete immortality, but elongating the life of the one who who eats it. Which alone if one alive mermaid were truly to be sold at an auction would make them worth a fortune…if one believes such tales."

"And you don't?" Will questioned, dazed by what Jack had just told him and not being able to bring himself to believe it all, how actually valuable these creatures appeared to be if only through rumors alone, but the pirate's such serious mien did affect him a bit and had him think mermaids much more intriguing beings than he had previously thought. And once Jack's eyes shifted to stare into his and riveted him to his place for a moment due to that much seen, significant look in them, Will was left but to match his gaze in astonishment. Feeling as if the two of them had just come to share something else aside for this unexpected venture they'd wound up on together.

"Is there any evidence to make ye think I do?"

Will said nothing to that. Turning more earnest himself now as he stared back at Jack for awhile in remarkable silence that said much more than any shared words, until Jack faced away from both him and the butcher shop without elaborating from where his knowledge of mermaids seemed to come from, which to Will had seemed to lie in more than mere tall tales shared amongst seamen. Once more waving an impassive hand to have him forget about the previous discussion.

"They're just tales, William. Nothing to concern yerself over now that ye have much bigger fish to fry than an imaginary sea creature of legend…which is getting yer girl back. Isn't that why ye're here?"

Will agreed with that, but despite of aiming to follow after Jack who now once more sided with Gibbs to send him off to find them a band of sailors, overhearing the pirate to instruct the elderly man to meet him at the docks early the following morning or dare not even show his mug should he not be accompanied by a number of able-bodied men as promised, deciding against it once he again turned his attention back to the slaughterhouse when a group of pirates walked past him. Bumping against him, however too eager to reach the auction to draw a blade at the young man, and despite of expecting to be confronted by those three burly men Will watched them to simply walk through the crowd after leveling a series of glares at him…All the while talking about the mermaid they were in the business of acquiring, at all costs…That taking the better of Will's reason when he again was carried away thinking about the one mermaid he'd actually met long ago, and driven now by that same wary fascination he found himself following them. Forgetting all about why he indeed had ended up to this island for, all about the quest he'd set off and the reason why he'd probably rendered himself a criminal himself by freeing a sentenced pirate from jail to get here, as his feet swiftly took him through the mob and all the way to the butcher shop. Will halting in front of the entrance in sudden hesitation as he stared up at the banderol, for a brief moment not so sure did he after all want to enter, but at the same time not understanding why, while the auctioneer stopped his loud promotion of the upcoming auction to give him an annoyed leer once he denied entry to the other attendees by standing right at the door. However just as Will was about to go inside himself Jack's voice calling out to him stopped him, Will turning again to see now the rather vexed looking pirate to be making his way through the thronging people to get to him.

"Oi! Didn't I tell ye to stay close?" he said, now directing quite a hard look at Will himself as came to stand by him, folding his arms impatiently in turn. "I'm sorry to say but despite of without a doubt possessing some form of wit to catch the eye of someone so high and mighty as the woman ye're so deeply smitten with, perched on top of a high horse landlubber like ye couldn't possibly find yer way in a highly outlandish place such as this, so why don't you stop making yerself lost and come along?"

"I'll meet you at the docks tomorrow", Will simply said, determined as made an attempt of stepping inside the building, but Jack's hand shot out to grab his shoulder. The man letting out a frustrated sigh before replied.

"There's no point in going in there, mate. All of it is just a hoax meant to rob credulous sods like ye clean from yer every penny. They be gorgeous aye, but there be no real mermaids for ye to feast your eyes upon to satisfy that preoccupation of yers."

"I'll see for myself", Will stated, returning Jack's skeptical quirk of eyebrows with a decisive mien, but the auctioneer who hadn't taken kindly of what he'd heard Jack say about him and the event he'd put up only pursed his lips in disagreement and hurried to stand in front of Will once he'd been about to walk inside. Will giving the man a curt, bewildered look until followed him to raise up a palm to him, the man cocking his head backwards as his eyes skimmed over him in an evaluating manner, not differentiating him from the rest of the poor, wretched residents of this unfortunate place, until his eyes lastly riveted onto Jack. To scowl at him until his hardened eyes shifted back to Will.

"The entry is five silver pieces", he informed him, shocking Will who blinked at his outrageous remark. Him sizing up the man in turn, confused.

"That much to simply attend? That's absurd."

"Tonight's bid is something special. Its not every day ye can see and purchase a living mermaid…or parts of it", the man replied, slow grin rising onto his lips once he noticed the young man to cringe slightly at his choice of words. His expression however soon enough turning back to somber as he eyed at Will in expectation, wiggling his fingers. "Since the price of the item is great, so is the entry fee. I'll have no indigents to come gawking at me product, so if ye can't pay, bugger off. There'll be plenty of others to take yer place."

Will leveled another incredulous look at the man until let out a sigh once he could see Jack to cast a wondering, but also concurring look at his profile from the corner of his eye. In the end Will pushing a hand into his pocket and taking out the little provisions he'd taken with him, but which also were the majority of his life-savings that he'd managed to put aside to this day after starting his apprenticeship at Brown's smithy. With a final squeeze given to the small pouch Will not even quite knowing why he then opened it and took out the said amount before dropping it onto the man's still awaiting hand. Gaining entry himself with another simper given to him by the man but which now had been but content, the auctioneer's fine carb which although very dirty and greatly worn still sown out of exquisite silk rustling as he gave room for Will to go inside. With not an ounce of doubt this time around Will doing just so after glancing at the man in irritation once the feather in his hat hit him in the face, walking inside the butcher shop to join the rest of the people already awaiting inside the auction to start. Him taking his place amongst the anxiously waiting patrons who'd gathered in small groups in front of a large curtain that had been drawn to the center of the large room that indeed reminded Will of a barn instead of a common slaughter house due to its mere size alone. Distinct noise of metal clattering somewhere behind that curtain claiming Will's attention once it was picked up by him the moment he arrived despite of the ear-shattering racket that dominated the space. Him glancing about the room to locate the source of the strange sound, not finding it, but wasn't given more time to think on it as abrupt bong that rang out in the air then brought an end to the ongoing blabber. Will and the rest of the men and women turning their focus onto a small stage that sat on their right, to see a young lad a few years Will's junior standing there a gong in his hands, explaining the previous noise. Once utmost silence had descended Will seeing the auctioneer to arrive, pushing through the people to join the boy on the pedestal before shooing him off amongst the crowd. All pirates and the rest of the low-lives alike that had come together turning their undivided attention to the man, to hear him then speak.

"Gentlemen and ladies…Tonight you have gathered here to take part in an auction that comes upon but once in a lifetime!" the man announced, standing tall in front of the riveted spectators as spread his arms ceremoniously. Truly adding to the magnificence of the event with his exaggerated mannerisms as his gaze now swept over the crowd, enticingly. "Tonight, what we have here for ye are goods not found purchasable at any waters outside of here…Something one of a kind and unique, creatures so ravishing and rare and difficult to acquire that they make any other exotic item or endangered beast pale in comparison…This night, we offer each and one of you a chance to obtain a piece of merchandise so exceptional no other auctioneer can provide…My good folk, honoured guests and fellow scoundrels…mermaids!"

Taken aback murmur erupted amongst the crowd as it was then when the auctioneer beckoned towards his assistant after prancing about on the stage during his sales pitch, the boy re-emerging from amongst the spectators to go over to the side of the curtain and by the order of the auctioneer pulled the torn, dusty fabric down. The heavy cloth cascading from on top of the beams until the lad swiftly yanked it to the side, revealing now two tanks that had been set in middle of the room…Both made of glass with ornamented detailing, heavy locks and latches molded out of cast iron riddling their sides, each filled to the rims with water that seemed to leak from the tiny gaps in the structures of the cases…And for the ultimate shock of the people now ogling at them each containing one fair faced finny creature that truly looked like a mermaid. Just like the auctioneer had said.

Will felt himself freeze as his eyes fixated onto the beings he along with everyone around them could now see displayed within those cases, doubt only making a fleeting appearance on his face as any disbelief was then instantly taken over by mere dismay. Him feeling his heart to begun to throb faster as his gaze then continued to shift between the cases in shock, until finally his eyes halted to the case nearest him. Him now staring at the womanlike creature in awe, taking in her long, red locks that floated about her at times as a thick curtain that concealed her lean built from sight, until eventually moved aside once the being moved. Flapping her long, strong tail that didn't seem to end in her midriff, scales covering her entire form and making her really look like an aquatic animal if it weren't for those humane features of the most alluring woman Will had ever laid eyes upon. The mermaid's gorgeous, penetrating eyes leering at the rows of men until Will watched her to make another flap with her tail, with a single effortless thrust of it turning upside down within the cramped space until slammed it against the glass. The loud thumping sound waking Will and several other men from their enraptured daze, Will blinking in an attempt to get himself together and only now taking notice of the shackles that connected the mermaid's wrists. The previous rattling sound getting then explained once he traced the chain to push out of the locked case all the way to the ceiling, ensuring the creature to be secured, at the realization of this him next briefly casting his eyes down…Them soon enough returning back to the caged mermaid in fascination, stupefaction. Now that he was beholding such a creature to have been truly trapped within a glass tank right in front of him not truly believing it…for anyone now seeing what he saw knew these mermaids to not be fakes, simple women dressed as these beings…but real ones.

"As you can see, ladies and gentlemen…what we have here are two highly valuable specimen for ye to choose from", the auctioneer continued. The silence resuming after the people had gotten over their shared sense of dismay and surprise over the fact of the man to not in fact being one of the usual frauds arranging such auctions in mind of emptying the attendees' pockets through mere deception. Will trying to work through his own outrage as his attention was then drawn to the farthest of the cases, in which a different mermaid had been confined…One with equally flowing, dark hair that spread around her like a delicate fishing net, until once the floating wisps parted and Will saw the creature to turn around to face him and the rest of the humans staring at her and her fellow mermaid the young man found himself to stiffen then for a while different reason as the auctioneer went on. Jack soon taking notice of Will's odd behaviour as the young man was soon drawn towards the tanks, the pirate however dismissing Will's actions as mere expected rapture of seeing a mermaid for the first time in his life, givenly enchanted by them as was to be expected thanks to the human nature.

"These mermaids were captured not but a couple of days ago not far from here. Freshly caught during a hunt, once their pod attempted to sink the ship of the suppliers who sailed over to the perilous waters they were known to inhabit during their search for prey, and who we are to thank for delivering such first rate goods for yer delectation", the auctioneer explained, as Will's focus shortly went back to him him noticing the man now to direct a remarkable nod towards a group of men he now could see lounge close to the stage. Swift examination over them informing him them to be part of a crew of some sort, and as Will eyed at them it soon became clear them to be exactly what the auctioneer called them…Men trained in the art of capturing mermaids, each covered in horrid scars that told of the injuries gained in such dangerous occupation of fishing for such lethal beings, armed with effects he could clearly associate with the likes of sailors dealing in the work of fishermen, but a totally different kind. Some carrying harpoon like blades on their person even now as they along with their captain were following their product to be sold, Will giving the jagged edges of their weapons a quick unnerved look as he couldn't help but think the evident damage such equipment would deal to the unfortunate prey, and at the thought of that his eyes then resumed their transfixed examination over the mermaids…Like before his undiverted focus getting drawn to the second case as he followed the mermaid to jiggle the sturdy chains trapping her wrists, swimming about the tank anxiously.

"These particular creatures are of potent variety. Far more exquisite and strong than their kind inhabiting the feared waters of Whitecap Bay…but even more vicious, as according to our provider it required far more several men to capture them with double the losses, so if I may suggest yer to keep yer distance from the items in question for the duration of the auction!"

Will gasped as his endless stare at the mermaid was brought to an end by the auctioneer who then ascended the stage, to come stand in front of him after witnessing him approaching the podium, and bemused Will cast a confused look up to the man. To see him level a stern leer back, until Jack's hand once more shot out from behind Will, pulling the young man back and keeping him still for the satisfaction of the auctioneer who then resumed his spot on the stage. Will however indeed then willingly stepping back as he was abruptly met with the gaze of the nearest, red haired mermaid. The way she glared at him like indeed a wild beast would after rattling the case she was in with a couple of more swift whacks of her tail causing him to keep his distance, as divine as she was…During that short moment his eyes had been locked with hers Will admitting that single look to have frightened him…greatly. Bringing back the old sense of terror from last time he'd encountered her kind…only barely surviving it, his own hand then unconsciously rising to smooth the concealed scar he himself had gained from the incident.

"But as deadly and dangerous as they are, I am glad to inform ye that today's items are more than worthy of yer coin…For they offer value far beyond the profit and benefits their lesser fellow species would. For not only are they magnificent creatures of rarest of nature, but as a superior breed gifted with a mightier essence that can provide their buyer with the greatest of utilities…Which can be ye, me dear folk", the auctioneer elaborated, now walking along the stage to get closer to the spectators, beckoning towards the mermaids significantly. "We all know the tales…Stories of their kind and the abilities they possess…One given kiss endowing a man protection against death by drowning, while their very blood and bodyparts offer cures for any ailment that humanity has ever doomed us with….even state of immortality."

"How can we know ye're not just lying?" one of the attendees then exclaimed, highly skeptical now of the eloquent assurances of the man as peered at the auctioneer. Many others joining him in doubting the man's claims that indeed sounded too good to be true.

"That's right! How come we should believe you?"

"Because my friends, I have not called ye here tonight to listen to the claptrap of charlatans usually standin' 'ere in me place in wait of yer patronage…but have come prepared for yer given scruple", the auctioneer answered, him then nodding over to his assistant who then walked over to the captain of the crew in charge of providing the auctioneer with tonight's product. Handing the boy a piece of paper which he was then swift to take to the auctioneer, the man then producing a crate for himself to stand upon so that he was towering high above the skeptical throng of townspeople before hoisted the paper in the air for the crowd to see. Once Will and Jack also gazed upward them finding it to be a very old wanted poster…of the very man sitting not far from them, the captain of the crew that seemed to make a living for itself by mermaid hunting…a fact which soon was proven by what the auctioneer then said to convince the doubtful attendees of his sincerity.

"This be an arrest warrant of the very good captain ye see now amongst ye…Only that it was compiled long before many of ye had even first drawn breath, during the turn of the current century or so, and as evidenced by his not much changed appearance I now reveal to ye…that during his years dedicated in hunting mermaids not only his crew but he has eluded the commonest affliction of men out of all by the consumption of the flesh of these mythical creatures…Giving them eternal youth, vitality withstanding even through death! Defying time and age, the devil himself!"

A new set of taken aback murmurs spread amongst the crowd as the stunned men and women alike now mobbed in front of the stage to take a better look of the presented warrant, and indeed finding the auctioneer to speak the truth once more. Will frowning slightly for bewilderment as he saw the year dating back several decades scripted onto the parchment, until the man depicted in the warrant now rose from his seat. Joining the auctioneer at the stage, claiming the paper back before placing it close to his face, for the people to be able to compare the drawn image of his younger self to his current self…Only finding not much changed in him aside for the heavy scarring and his weathered exterior, as the man then produced a necklace from under his shirt collar. Causing unintentional shivers to run across Will's skin for some reason as he saw the clear fangs and pieces of bone of different ages that hung from it…undoubtedly belonging to mermaids.

"I once was like ye. Doubting such tales as mere superstitious nonsense of sailors lost to the endless swells and tumults of the seas…Until the day I caught myself the first mermaid and was given the opportunity to prove myself wrong…To have captured dozens and dozens of these devilish sea ghouls and through harvesting and consuming their meat and endless resources gained myself a stand of a superior being…rivarled only by gods spoken in the grand legends and myths!"

Will noticed Jack to roll his eyes as the pirate's words that only spurred the crowd's once more infused excitement, supporting the auctioneer's claims and making him even more credible in the eyes of this riffraff that wasn't so hard to convince after all…Much less to have had them believe in the greatly exaggerated pledges of the sales pitch, but as simpleminded as they might've been, it didn't change the fact that the men seemed to be speaking the truth…Baffled by this Will casting one more glance at the man and his arrest warrant until his eyes looked down to the necklace of bone before gazing past him. At the less intimidating mermaid he once more spied to be swirling inside the narrow case, in instinctive try to swim to freedom, but the thick walls of glass prevented it. However as the auctioneer then continued to recite the claimed benefits of mermaids after presenting his evidence something Will then spotted while eyeing at the second mermaid catching his full attention and he found himself riveted by it, it soon enough luring him to leave the rows of men once more and walk closer to the tanks.

Will didn't hear Jack as the pirate tried to get him to stop, to come back. Will being only aware of the strange feeling of familiarity that had suddenly taken over him as he'd abruptly noticed something about the other mermaid that called to him, leading him forward as he was approaching the tanks. Bypassing the first and this time around not even flinching at the red haired mermaid who instantly charged at him, causing the case she was held in to shake once she darted against the glass in an attempt to attack Will, who however only kept walking towards the second tank. His eyes never leaving the other mermaid who then took notice of him, and once she saw him Will was then brought to a halt when instead of charging at him like the other mermaid had she quickly swam away. Using her tail to retreat to the back of the tank with a swift twirl, the manacles scraping against the glass as she positioned herself just under the tank's tightly locked lid and he was then confronted with that same monstrous face he vividly remembered when the mermaid hissed at him. The screeching sound of warning stilling his blood for a brief instant as he stared back at the creature warning him from approaching, until that same sense of familiarity kicked in and Will found himself calmed down when after a while he saw the mermaid's locks to float out of the way to reveal her face once more…Her eyes that just previously had changed to white now once again humane and totally different in color, for his following shock Will realizing himself to recognize them as he behold her revealed fangs and claws to draw back, leaving him now staring at a positively enchanting creature that indeed looked like a young woman…One he then understood to have met before, him blinking in dismay of this as the mermaid then seemed to measure him in similar manner, her vicious countenance mellowing down to austere.

Even just previously she'd eyed at him just like the other mermaid had, as mere food and powerless prey, her eyes that had been but cold and diabolical now even seemed to have a hint of surprise in them now as she stared back at Will those few seconds. The young man far too mesmerized not only by her beauty but the soothing familiarity of her green irises that he didn't realize to be at all intimidated once she then abruptly approached him after studying him carefully. Will's eyes trailing her as with a suave flap of her tail she was at the bottom of the tank, facing him, despite of her guarded being continuing to examine him as Will did the same. Him finally breaking their stare to let his eyes to admire the shiny, soft looking scales that caused her body to glimmer even in the darkness of the butcher shop all the way to her slender arms and face, translucent, tattered tendrils coming off of her wiry, green tail as well as the three, joint fins that also were covered in stinger like spikes. His eyes then only passing the gills he saw stretch from her jaw to her neck when his focus was now only drawn to the very thing that had lured him over to her once the mermaid next placed a careful, as if quizzical hand against the glass…Will's irises lingering just slightly on her webbed fingers stretched across the tank for him to see before they fixated onto the gruesome scar he could now fully behold on her palm…Image of the pirate medallion he'd lost years ago forever burnt to her flesh, and at the sight of the distinct Aztec skull he couldn't help but gasp. In understanding, then vividly remembering what had happened all those years ago at the _Sea Shepherd_ …remembering her.

"It's you", Will breathed, stunned in a rush of sudden memory, but after a fleeting confounded frown his gaze locked with the mermaid's again. Him not being able to fully tell was she experiencing the same or was she just curious about him, but that scar proved him to be right…that she was the mermaid who had spared him, whose hand had been burned by his long lost pirate medallion when she'd tried to first eat him…The golden tint of the tanks' edges especially around the latches and the joints of the case now making sense to Will as he now gave them a quick glance, with this time a conflicted, compassionate frown him discovering to be compelled to place his own fingers onto the glass, onto the scar that he now fathomed to connect him to this captured creature, as he then took notice of the blood that was visible in the water…The dark substance seeping out of the multiple gruesome ulcers and cuts he then could see cover the mermaid, defensive wounds from the time of her trying to flee her captors…His heart in fact lurching at the sight, but as the mermaid then instantly pulled away due to his gesture and once again retreated to the other side of the case with a flash of her fangs Will pulled back his hand at the sound of the growl that followed it before she turned away from him, however then never losing sight of him fully as long as he stayed near her. Will's own palm staying in the air uselessly as he was left eyeing at the mermaid in stupefaction, incredulous…Exchanging one more look with her once she swam around the tank again, pulling against her chains.

"How can it be you?"


	3. The Mermaid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:
> 
> So…Things took a much darker and gruesome turn than I anticipated in this chapter, but since my intention while coming up with this concept was to depict mermaids as more like the monsters they are also considered within this universe in addition to the beautiful creatures of myth with tails, I suppose it couldn’t be avoided…So I guess this story’s rating will change to M, just to be safe.

“How is this possible?” Will mused. To himself as ogled at the mythical creature leering back at him through the glass that separated them. Those icy and yet so enchantingly green eyes riveting him to the floor so that he couldn’t do anything else but stand there, stupefied. The words of the auctioneer falling on deaf ears as he eyed at the mermaid and the case she was trapped in in dismay, not being able to wrap his mind around the fact that he’d crossed paths with her again after believeing to never see her again…or any mermaid for that matter. But now there were two of them, swirling about in those tanks on display like pieces of delectable, rare meat…Only that the other one wasn’t some faceless monster to him, but a girl who’d once saved his life. For Will knew that had he not met her, he would be dead.

“Oi! Have had enough of dazing over these merwenches yet?” Jack’s voice suddenly inquired impatiently, breaking through Will’s reverie and he was finally able to look away from the mermaid once the pirate’s hand latched to his arm to turn him around. Will discovering Jack to have apparently also left the crowd despite of the attempts of the auctioneer’s helpers trying to keep him away from the merchandise. The boys however doing little to stand in the pirate’s way, Jack reclaiming his hand until settled it at his belt, eyeing at Will with arched eyebrows that mirrored his impatience until he gave the mermaid beside them a fleeting, even a curious but also rather knowing glance…Which caused Will then to think this perhaps not to be the first time he’d gazed upon such a creature. “Ye mate have not the means to pay even for a right to touch her, yet alone to acquire some of her loveliness to yourself…So come along before ye get yer sole valuables bit off of ye.”

“I know her”, Will argued, now leveling an earnest look at Jack after giving him an odd look due to his previous remark. Him honestly surprising the pirate as now Jack’s brow rose in clear dismay of his claim, regardless of his disbelief fascinated enough to cast a quizzical look at the young Turner.

“What?”

“I know her, Jack. She saved me…And I have to help her”, Will explaind, his serious eyes dropping briefly in passing concern, until his focus went back to the tank and the mermaid inside it. Jack seeing him to be telling the truth from that reminiscient look on his mien, but although his words hadn’t even remotely delved further into this topic, the pirate then couldn’t help but eye at Will incredulously once his own attention was drawn to the dark haired mermaid staring daggers at him. Jack however not as much as flinching as she then charged closer to him once he took a small pace closer to the tank, unlike the other people taking part in this auction and the young lad by his side him not getting too mesmerized by her divine beauty and only narrowed his eyes at her fangs that were bared to him. The end of her tail smacking against the glass just next to his head, as a clear sign of her not taking his proximity kindly, and the feeling was rather mutual…For Jack had never quite liked creatures like her and would’ve much preferred to steer clear of them.

“William, do ye realize what ye’re saying? She would rather eat you than let ye lay a single chivalrous finger on her…And would never pass up a meal in favour of helping a human…Case in point”, Jack said, beckoning to the tanks and the gruesome treatment the hunters and the auctioneer had placed the mermaids under, before his fluctuating hand pointed towards the very men and their mangled appearance. Will only giving them a brief look, of understanding as naturally he realized his desire to free this creature was mere loonacy taken the amount of men currently lounging about this space who would be most definitely against it, as well as the very mermaid that despite of their history would undoubtedly maul him to death the minute she’d be freed from those chains and that case…However the very barbarous injuries inflicted upon her then causing Will to frown stubbornly, opposing to Jack’s dismissive urge for him to let the matter be.

“I have to do something!”

“Forget about the maneater with fins and focus on chasing after the other more human kind of tail closer to yer standards…For that thing isn’t the lass ye’ve come all this way in minds of saving, is she?”

The reality came crashing down swiftly as Will remembered Elizabeth. Yes, he’d wound up to this island in order to save her…Not a mythical creature he’d once had the misfortune of meeting and who’d made an attempt on his life, even if she’d finally let him go. But although Will knew it in his heart time to be of the essence and that Elizabeth was in more pressing danger the longer she remained in the clutches of those pirates, he still couldn’t bypass the need of this mermaid. The way she jerked at her bonds anxiously, squirming like a worm in a hook while her blood continued to color the tank’s water, tugging at his heartstrings. Monster or not Will pitying her, not caring whether of such compassion was unwise to be shown for a man eating creature such as her…Especially when she then shifted her eyes to him, Will looking into her eyes and catching a glimpse of the helpless fear that flickered in her irises until her gaze hardened again into mere predatory. Throwing daggers at the nearby humans, and Will could feel a fearful shudder to run through him.

“So without further ado, let us begin the auction!” the auctioneer exclaimed then. Claiming the pair of men’s attention and both Will and Jack turned to look at the man in question as he paraded across the stage. The leader of the pack of hunters to have returnd back to his crewmen while the impatient audience closed in around the man running this spectacle, once more fully transfixed by his words and awaiting them in ever growing alacrity. A couple of the auctioneer’s men then marching over to where Will and Jack stood at the worldess behest of the man, motioning them to join with the others with their slightly bared blades, clearly not asking.

“The first item shall be the less considerable specimen of the two, the mermaid you can see on display at the back!” the auctioneer announced solemnly, his voice bouncing back from the rafters as he now beckoned to his men to go over to the farthest tank to bring the creature forth. After rejoining the ranks of the zealous mob reluctantly Will casting a slightly alarmed look at the mermaid whom he then followed to be brought to the front, total of four men dragging the heavy case over to the stage while another man had climbed to the ceiling to give the chains confining the mermaid some leeway. The red haired mermaid now turning even further coltish, her tail whacking the glass walls of her prison repeatedly once she witnessed her fellow creature to be moved over to the entranced horde of humans. Will struggling to maintain his spot amongst the spectators once the people behind him begun to throng closer to the case, to get a better view of the creature in sale.

“But by referring to this particular mermaid lesser comes strictly from the difference between these beings’ age, for Captain Savington has assured me that according to the size of this creature’s tail and the number of tendrils in its fins this mermaid is at least a few decades younger than the second one you see before you, whose tendrils have fully developed into stingers these fiends use to swat their prey, to lace their quarry with poison before devouring them...For mermaids be immortal, ageless species that spend half their lives evolving to their ideal form and can live on for decades…perhaps even centuries! As does the effect of the products harvested from them”, the auctioneer continued, briefly pointing to the red haired mermaid rampaging within her tank, until shifted the audience’s focus back to the case in the front. In which the second mermaid had also begun to swerve more frantically, amidst he tries to pry loose the heavy manacles Will hearing the hisses that slipped from under her raised upper lip once the assistant boys next neared the tank. To have neither seen a real mermaid from so close, equally tempted hy ber bewitching looks that either Will couldn’t deny to continue to sway him whenever her roaming eyes swept over him. The rattle of chains chafing against the case’s lid getting then drowned under the auctioneer’s boisterous monologue.

“We shall start with a bottom bid of fifteen gold pieces…Ye may either purchase certain parts of the creature according to yer fancy, or claim all of the benefits to yerself through buying the mermaid as a whole...So, any bids?”

Surprisingly a short silence descended then as the people where shocked by the notably high minimum price presented by the auctioneer, the spectators exchanging confounded glances as the seller’s gaze scoured the faces of his audience until he finally moved closer to the tank…Just as Will then suddenly spotted a strange noise. A faint sound starting to play somewhere in the background until bit by bit it grew louder, once he soon could identify it as soft singing him gazing about the people around him to learn where it was coming from. However realizing that apparently no one else was able to hear that humming voice, as no one in his vicinity gave any indication to be hearing what he did…Soon enough as the auctioneer ended the silence Will fathoming that voice crooning to his ear deftly not to be echoing within the butcher shop…but in his head. Turning only louder at the understanding of this, Jack noticing him to gasp as Will listened to those charming tunes. Finding himself quickly captivated by them.

“Can you hear it?” he asked, frowning in bafflement as the ghostly and yet so enthralling voice continued to whisper to him, the pirate by his side casting a fleeting quizzical look at him until shifted his jaded focus back to the flaunting man on the stage. Deciding to dismiss the younger man’s oddities this time around.

“Hear what, mate?”

“That sound….That voice”, Will mused, glancing about the room again in disbelief of his findings, but indeed…Neither Jack or the rest of the crowd could seemingly hear what he did, and this took Will aback until it only stupefied him. The tempting humming now morphing to clear singing, although he couldn’t understand the words murmured so sweetly to him, to his heart that next begun to beat faster in response to the beguiling voice calling to him…To his very essence to respond and succumb to it.

Once Will next cast his confounded gaze down he then suddenly spotted one of the more older assistant boys to leave the stage, the boy he now discovered to be far into his teenage years strudging down the few steps in a peculiar daze. Will leveling a wondering look at him as watched him then to walk past the case the dark haired mermaid was held in, even further lost to his employer’s words as Will was.

“Come now, me dear folk! Step up lively and make yer bids! Fifteen pieces is a tiny sum to pay for a chance as exceptional as this…For a chance to elevate oneself above yer fellow scoundrels, for a possibility to achieve things that once were the mere figment of yer blighters’ imagination…To grasp even godhood itself!”

That statement brought out the crowd’s ardour once more and in an instant the air was filled with heated outcries when people begun to shout out their offered sums, trying to outbid the other. Soon enough the competing voices of the pirates and townsfolk alike muddling together and becoming so loud that it made it hard for Will to keep up with the bids, although he was following the ongoing commotion only halfly, for his focus was directed mostly at the assistant boy. The stange eerie melody continuing to ring in his ears louder than ever, now turning even more alluring concluding by the abrupt skip his heart made before swelling for unexplained longing...Will finding himself having serious difficulties to keep track of what was happening around him, but he cleared his mind as much as was able, regardless of the now so clear voice seeming like infusing with his very thoughts, him following the assistant to next circle the tank and walk over to the second mermaid. Fumbling his belt with sluggish fingers, Will’s eyes now rising to look at the other mermaid and for his surprise he noticed her to have settled down. Not any more trashing about within the case violently and shrieking like a hellish fiend, but just floated by the side of the tank calmly. Her eyes riveted to the assistant boy.

“I bid twenty coins!” one pirate shouted over the racket. Jack then elbowing Will to his arm slightly to gain his attention, nodding towards the ongoing auction.

“Ye wanted to stay. Might as well keep an eye which blackguard ye have to clobber to save this secondary damsel of yours”, Jack told him with a hushed voice, Will however not shifting his eyes from the lad for long aside for a fleeting look given to the pirate and the rowdy people around them, until he spied on the lad again. To see him come to a halt in front of the red haired mermaid’s tank while gripping something in his hand…Will however not seeing what it was as then abruptly he was almost shoved aside by a burly pirate who pushed through the crowd to voice out his own bid. A few others following suite and forcing Will and Jack to withdraw from the front line that was currently bustling with avaricious men and women, all trying to gain the auctioneer’s attention.

“I pay twenty-five pieces for the mermaid!”

“And I thirty!”

“I bid fifty pieces of a vat of its blood and scales, and ten in silver for the heart!”

Will cast dubious glances at the noisy bidders, amazed and also dumbfounded by the amount of coin they were willing to pay, some making offers everyone within the butcher shop knew them to be unable to cough up by the mere look at them, where some more wretched looking individuals took their fellow bidders by surprise by actually delving into their pockets and presenting the auctioneer with the promised treasures. Will listening to the varying, progressive bids in ever growing anxiety, but also in wonder as he then came to think about the auctioneer’s words. Finding it odd for the man to be willing to sell the mermaid in parts, for wouldn’t she be of more worth as a whole? However after overhearing several offers made for her distinct bodyparts the nature of such bids soon coming to disgust Will, and his furtive, dubious glances changed into spiteful scowls….For although he’d been previously informed of the benefits of acquiring a mermaid or even pieces of one by both Jack and the auctioneer, to think this mermaid to be maimed and harvested for the sake of one of her organs or a patch of her skin…It caused him then to forget about the assistant boy as he cast an unnerved look at the mermaid of his acquiaintance, following her to eye at the disorderly cluster of people with her steely gaze, leveling spine-chilling leers at anyone who dared to come too close.

“I bid seventy pieces of the creature!” someone exclaimed then, the shouting people going silent for a brief instant due to their dismay over the raise in the previous bid until the clamor resumed even more ear-deafening. Will now willingly stepping aside as a couple of miscreants confronted one another after presenting their rivarling bids that also tried to evoke the other, getting into a row that seemed to border close to actual fisticuffs, however even higher new bid claiming their attention and Will also cast a stunned glance at the previously spoken woman as he stumbled away from the more restless members of the audience. Separating from Jack who remained standing exactly at the middle of the crowd, unbothered by the uproar around him, however at the demand of the siren song coercing him to listen Will then recalling the assistant boy.

Will tried to look past the bustling people, peering at the farthest tank in his attempt to see the lad, and after a while of searching for a viewpoint, he spotted him from amongst the crowd. However for his surprise not finding him to be still standing in front of the case, but Will watched in brief bafflement as he was trailing his way up the tank’s wall. The eerie ring of the voice intensifying and delving deeper into Will’s very core, riveting him to his place and causing him to lose further perception of the events, as he simply stared at the lad in a daze of his own and watched him clamber up the ornamented edge of the tank. All the while the assistant’s eyes remaining locked with the mermaid’s who had now pressed close to the lad, staring back at him now seductively, and tardily a certain thought rose form the back of Will’s mind while he observed the lad to reach the top of the case. The mermaid moving so that she was now looking up to him through the locked lid, settling her webbed fingers against the glass as her tail made a suave flap to bring her closer to the lad. In a trance the assistant then simply locking gazes with the enchanting creature, until after a moment that felt like an eternity to Will he followed the assistant to finally reveal the item he’d been holding…The lad taking out a ring of keys.

The singing now rose into an ethereal crescendo and Will missed everything that was currently happening behind his back as he was utterly spellbound by the melodious humming, only capable of watching with nothing seeing eyes how the assistant begun to unlock the numerous bolts keeping the mermaid captive…Until just as a certain pirate raised the bid into two hundred gold pieces for the elation of the auctioneer Will behold the assistat to open the final latch and with slow, wooden movements raised the tank’s lid. The moment he now saw the mermaid to instantly slip out of the case and rise from the water to press close to the enthralled lad, despite of the humming trying to drown out everything aside for the overpowering urge to be lost to that sweet melody, Will blinked. Snapping out of his own rapture enough to realize the mermaid to have been freed. And just as he then came to fathom the song that had been playing in his mind to have been sung by that very creature, like a siren her to have lured the assistant over with those alluring tunes that no others aside for him and Will had been able to hear to unlock the case, some of the other auctioneer’s men finally taking notice of the assistant’s doings. Dread creeping across Will’s spine in a form of cold shivers as the daunting reality dawned on him once he watched the mermaid to place a gentle hand on the lad’s cheek. The latest bid now rising up to over two hundred and fifty gold pieces, just as the auctioneer’s men jumped into action, too late however as the yet unaware auctioneer next proclaimed the unrivarled winning bid.

“Sold! For the sir at the back with the bid of 275 gold pieces!”

The lad had time but to lean a tad closer to the creature, still under the spell of her song, trapped ny the allure of her gaze once the mermaid then lunged. Her eyes rolling back and her fangs pushing out, Will following her nails to turn into those long, predatory claws he well remembered to have ploughed into his own flesh, once with a furious snarl she threw herself at the defenceless assistant boy and sank her teeth into his exposed neck. Huge splatter of blood soon splashing onto the tank and the floor as the lad screamed in horror, the sharp fangs finally breaking the thrall of his previous rapture, and his agonized outcry now finally drew the attention of he auctioneer and the crowd. All turning to witness how with a quick snap of her head the mermaid bit out a chunk of the lad’s flesh, exposing bone, all hell breaking loose in an instant as Will along with Jack and other equally stupefied spectators watched the assistant to be further mauled by the mermaid until his new gurgling scream got muffled once he was dragged into the tank by the creature. The water now turning bright red from the lad’s blood as the mermaid trashed him around, clawing at him, until finally released the lad with a dreadful hiss that could be well heard even to the farthest corner of the room. Immediately the mermaid resurfacing from the tank, her moment ago so beautiful features contorted by a monstrous grimace as she hauled herself out of the case to stare down at the people ogling at her in dread, Will wincing once he could’ve sworn to see a strip of the lad’s skin to stick out of the mermaid’s mouth. Stepping back in alarm once his eyes briefly were cast down to the body of the assistant now laying at the bottom of the tank while utter panic instantly spread amongst the people.

“It’s loose! The creature is free!”

Will was almost toppled over as the people around him started to run towards the exit in a frenzy, Jack close to sharing his fate once the men and women around him were now pushing each other aside to get to the door first, the same horde that had bustled by the stage just a moment before now shifting away from it and the cases as another, even louder enraged snarl emanated from the escaped creature’s throat. The mermaid to have now shifted her focus to the pair of men who’d scaled up to the ceiling in haste after realizing the assistant’s intentions, in order to go secure the shackles still keeping the mermaid tied down, but in quicker understanding of this the mermaid hissed furiously and pulled against the manacles once they took hold of them to restrain her. With a single yank causing the men to loose their footing and fall from the rafter, the mermaid pulling against the chains once more and a loud sound of splintering wood ensued as she managed to break one of the beams the fetters were wrapped around, in a blink of an eye the creature then slipping over the tank’s edge. Dropping to the floor, and taking advantage of the slackened chains she used her tail to coil her body like a snake, turning around with a rigorous flap of it until whacked it against the tank.

Will struggled to stay on his feet as dodged the panicking people dashing towards the entrance, watching the mermaid to continue to strike the case with her firm tail which wasn’t as slender as the other mermaid’s. As evidence to her apparent greater age and maturity it taking but two hard whacks for it to manage to break the tank, displaying similar unparrallel power as s the simple jerk of her arms had. Bloodied water flooding through the formed cracks that instantly gave in under the pressure of the mermaid’s previous strike, until with a final most vicious blow the mermaid managed to bring down the whole case, alone, even it had required four men to simply move it.

Will’s eyes widened as he followed the heavy, still standing iron frame to tip over, the auctioneer’s soothing outcries getting soon drowned under the ear-shattering chink of broken glass as the tank crashed against the second one. For the horror of the auctioneer and the mermaid hunters who’d failed to approach the freed creature due to the townsfolk and pirates alike scampering about the space to escape her, also the second tank caved in. After a brief instant of withstanding the weight of the frame the glass cracking and soon shattering once the yet caged mermaid made a fast swirl and also landed a brisk whack of her own tail at the damaged part of the case. Sigh escaping Will’s lips as he now followed the water to surge out of the tank along with the mermaid who was caught by the current and soon flopped to the floor through the slivered wall. Now laying on the floor on her side on top of the tiny shards as the water continued to spill out of th tank, washing over her and wiping away the blood that had spilled out of the small wounds the jagged edge of the glass had left behind, Will having time but to see her to begin to raise herself from the floor just as a couple of gunshots cut through the air. The hunters forcing the people to give them room with those warning shots and they now rushed over to the stage area, their weapons beared. The auctioneer however staying their readied harpoon like spears that had been directed at the rampaging mermaid, stopping them.

“Don’t kill them! That other one alone is woth over two and a half hundred gold pieces!”

This brief moment was enough for the red haired mermaid to strike, in a flash her breaking the chains still circling her wrists and springing up from her spot, Will spying how two, strange appendages shot out of her hands. The greenish twines that looked venuous extensions of her body wrapping around a couple of the hunters’ weapons, clinging to them before the mermaid pulled her arms back and the spears were ripped from the men’s hands. Them taking a taken aback step back as then watched the appendages to be unfurled towards them again, and the men were quickly knocked over. Their captain starting to shout out commands to contain the creature as the mermaid pulled the appendages back, Will watching them to retreat back into the interior side of her palms as the other man was next hurled across the room, where the second one got dragged across the floor and all the way to the awaiting mermaid. Will gasping as the scene he now behold brought back instant flashbacks once he watched the mermaid to lunge forth and take hold of the man. The sword he had aimed at her doing little to spare him as she simply grasped his arm with her own vice like grip, before slid over his body and bit into him.

Blood once more mixed in with the water streaming across the floor as the mermaid pinned the trashing, kicking man under her and tore him open. The beast like sound rising up her throat not getting muffled even by the man’s flesh she was chewing on, until after bringing down his resistance with one more bite at the base of his neck she separated from her prey. Causing Will to freeze as her eyes looked straight at him, him gasping at the sight of all the blood that covered her face until she then moved, her attention fixating onto the now approaching hunters who were making their way over to her along with a handful of the auctioneer’s men. Will not even realizing to wonder over it as the mermaid abandoned the dying man and dashed at the nearest pirate like a cornered animal charges at those threatening them, hurtling across the floor in lightning speed while Will retreated from the centre of the room. Moving to the sidelines to see the mermaid to easily evade the hunter’s piercing blade and used her claws to injure him, Will watching them to cut the man open cleanly, until she grabbed the man’s arm once he’d been about to punch her. It being only then when for his shock Will realized the creature to be actually standing, her tail now gone and to have morphed into a pair of legs, until the ugly sound of bone breaking caught his attention. Causing him to gasp as he now watched the man to be killed once the mermaid also ripped his throat open with a single bite, the agonized bellow that had rang in the air cutting short, ending in but frightened screams of the townspeople who were forced to witness the confrontation of these men with the mermaid upon not getting to the door due to the raving horde already mobbing the entrance.

Will’s eyes scoured the premises, searching for any sign of Jack from amongst the frantic cluster of people who’d blocked the exit, while trying to get out of the slaughterhouse simultaneously jamming the doorway with the very panicking mass of people trying to squeeze through. However not finding him as it was then when his focus zeroed in on the second mermaid, Will watching her to scrabble with the sturdy manacles, floundering on the floor as tried to be freed of them, her angry hisses and premonitory snarling reaching his ears as she shot scowls at the men surrounding her. Bearing her fangs at anyone daring to come too close as she continued to pull against the chains, Will tensing and casting helpless glances at the pirates hemming her in their cutlasses bared and ready to cut the creature, but for his following relief also she then succeeded in loosening the chains. The rafter they were secured to breaking under her fierce tugs and she gained more leeway, Will watching her to wind her tail close to herself as rose to a sitting position before let out a new frightening snarl, causing the pirate advancing towards her to still for a moment, and at the sight of his fear she flapped her tail towards him. Bringing him down, one more whack of her fins directed at his face causing the man to be thrown onto his back, and Will frowned once he witnessed the pirate to curl into a ball. Spitting out curses amongst his pained groans as his hands clutched to his face, from between his fingers Will noticing actual blisters to be rapidly rising onto his skin which soon covered his whole face and neck…His complexion turning wan and mucuous, like dead fish’.

Despite of the men’s efforts the red haired mermaid kept her ground, using either her appendages to throw aside the hunters that tried to attack her, striking sharply and accurately and disposing many of the pirates from their weapons, or throwing herself at her attackers with feral growls. Rapidly killing them off with her fast and deadly attacks, the whole room filling with the foul stench of blood, and the nauseating sight of gore and pieces of torn flesh scattering the floor turned Will’s stomach, but the concern he found himself harbouring for the other mermaid took over his overall fear of the ravaging creature. Him simply standing there still, now watching how she used her tail to throw another pirate back violently until his breath was then actually caught in his throat as he behold it to begin to change. To change shape as she rolled around to ward off another man nearing her, until soon her tail begun to part and turned into a pair of equally slender, glistening legs. Will blinking at the sight, fascinated as he saw the scales covering her skin to shimmer beautifully even in the darkness until they begun to fade, soon disappearing, leaving but mere skin…And he discovered her to now look just like a human…not a monster. However him getting reminded of the fallaciousness of such thought once he now watched her to rise to her feet at the sight of two other pirates approaching her, attacking shiftly once the second one came too close, and Will followed her to use her own appendages to trap him after dodging a swing of his sword. Pulling him over and tackling him before bit into him savagely, killing him.

Most of the people had managed to get out of the slaughterhouse by the time the raging mermaid had killed the majority of the auctioneer’s men, also a few of the mermaid hunters to have lost their lives during their attempt to capture her without harming her, which however should’ve been obvious from the start to be an impossibility. The creature’s rage and strength making her insuperable against the humans’ weapons that proved downright feeble, her mere grip being able to crush a man’s windpipe...Making a mere cut of a sword inferior against the deadly strike of her claws or a bite of her razor-sharp fangs that showed no mercy to anyone too slow to evade them.

Will dropped to the floor to avert one of the pirates who was thrown across the air, some warm droplets of blood trickling onto his face and clothes, and once he glanced behind him at the defeated miscreant he behold half of his face to have been clawed off. Will’s emerging fear however being shortlived and getting replaced by panic of his own as he could then hear a livid growl and he whipped his head back around. To see the red haired mermaid to be once more eyeing at him, but this time in clear means of attacking him, her daunting stare nailing him to his spot as he watched the blood covered creature to face him and prepare to launch one of her appendages at him. To drag him over to be eaten, and he gasped once he saw it lash out, darting towards him, but he blinked in dismay as a blade suddenly appeared to cut the appendage down. The mermaid now releasing a shrill outcry of clear pain, cowering back while her murderous eyes threw daggers at Will. His eyes however lastly setting onto the other mermaid who was still bound and near the tank, defending herself against the incoming pirates, until a firm hand grasping his shoulder and turning him around claimed Will’s attention and shifted it from the brutal sight of her fellow mermaid breaking a man’s spine and actually ripping it out halfway. Will looking up to stern looking Jack who’d just saved him from ending up perhaps like that poor man, it taking a moment for him to focus on the pirate’s words over the thundering sound of his heartbeat.

“Will! We have to go”, Jack said hastily, glancing at the ongoing massacre grimly as now grasped to dazed Will’s clothes to haul him to his feet, but although he did rise he didn’t show any indication of following him once Jack was about to make his way over to the exit. Will’s eyes remaining fixated onto the dark haired mermaid, following her to keep pulling at the iron bonds keeping her fastened to the ceiling and which now caused her to be trapped between the three still standing auctioneer’s men once the manacles were caught to the edge of the tank as she was driven further away from the case…Despite of her dodging the jabbing, slashing points of several weapons the chains leaving her far more defenseless against these men who were now coming in for a kill, not to simply capture her…For the bloothbath executed by these creatures proved none of them to make out of there alive if they wouldn’t slay the mermaids…Which was exactly what alarmed Will, him shaking his head at Jack who faced him with a baffled frown, shoving him with the handle of his cutlass.

“No…Not yet.”

Without a word of explanation and with one more look directed at the mermaid getting harrassed by the haphazardous strikes of the pirates’ blades that this time around didn’t falter at the sound of her hisses or flash of her fangs Will then pulled out the axe he still carried in his belt and rushed to action. Hopping over the bodies of deceased and yet to die men riddling the floor as he raced towards the ladder he’d spotted at the opposite wall, similar to the one the auctioneer’s men had used to scale up to the ceiling, and planning on doing the same he darted across the room and begun to climb. Reaching the rafter in a manner of seconds and his gaze rose to the higher beam to which the chains had been originally fastened, reaching out one arm for support him then starting to tiptoe across the beam to reach the center of it, to detach the fetters. For he didn’t even need to glance down at the mermaid to know her to be in trouble, should she remain restrained those pirates soon killing her without her having any change to further protect herself …For she was already gravely injured, and despite of her to have been able to kill a few men in her current condition, Will knew she wouldn’t last. Him to have seen the wounds covering her, and that each attack she’d made against those men had drained her more than they probably would’ve normally…As she wasn’t after all as strong and resilient as the other, older mermaid.

The screams of pain and fear were beginning to lessen as Will reached his destination, him gripping to the beam above him while brought out his axe and instantly begun to hack at the beam. Finally offering an explanation to bemused Jack who’d watched him to clamber up to the ceiling, but in understanding he followed Will to land swift, hard strikes at the beam before eventually managing to weaken it. Also alerted by the sound of metal striking metal and wood splintering the mermaid glancing over to where Will stood, and although he didn’t cast her a single look nor said anything to signal him to be helping her, she knew. In fact just as Will directed one more heavy whack at the base of the rafter, causing it to crack significantly, the mermaid suddenly pulled against her manacles once more. Her yank this time around so powerful that Will got startled once it instantly broke the beam in two, throwing him off balance once the chains were torn apart from the rafter and they flicked through the air just by Will’s head. Briefly tangling to his feet and Will lost his grip of his axe as tumbled from the rafter with a taken aback outcry, just barely managing to hang onto the beam as the distinct rattle coming from below told him the fetters to have fallen and finally freed the mermaid. His heart once more racing for the scare of the fall Will looking over his shoulder, seeing from the corner of his eye her to immediately charge at one of the approaching pirates. Although her wrists remained tied her still being able to move more freely now that he’d detached the chain from the ceiling, but while she was preparing to face the second man approaching her, her attack was interrupted midway as the air was once more pierced by a loud sound of a pistol going off. Followed by an agonized, animal like wail that caught the mermaid’s attention, as well as Will’s once he’d managed to haul himself on top of the rafter again, to see how the second mermaid had been shot by the captain of the pirate hunters. Bringing the creature’s rampage to a brief halt.

The red haired mermaid had been rendered curtly motionless by the shot that had seemingly pierced her chest, but after but an instant of pulling back and cowering at the floor her eyes shot back up, flaming with rage and utterly heedless to her injury she jumped up agilely and lunged at the captain, who was simply leering back at her serenely. Totally unaffected by the rabid snarling of the creature as she jumped at him, however despite of to have not let any of the men to surprise her before, the mermaid now getting cornered by what was left of captain Savington’s crew. His men rescuing the man from the mermaid just in time, Will watching how first of them leapt forth and lashed at her with a cutlass, the mermaid recoiling but bouncing back quickly and she whipped to face her assailant with an angry hiss. However despite of succeeding in tackling him and clawing one of his eyes out, the mermaid then getting kicked by one of the pirates, although not helping in getting her away from the man distracting her long enough for her to be shot again by their captain. This time around the monstrous gnarl of the creature getting cut off once she staggered back, leaving the wounded pirate alone as she retreated, still moving quickly regardless of her injuries, but didn’t get far as one of those harpoon like spears was then thrown at her. The other mermaid visibly flinching once she saw the jagged edged weapon to impale her fellow creature, until now a deploring, truly anguished bewail slipped her lips when she followed the spear to be instantly pulled out of the mermaid until the pirates charged in unison, finally bringing the creature down by using their collection of weapons to slice and cut at her torso.

The furious, rebellious hisses of the mermaid soon turned infrequent and her ferocious snarling morphed into death silence only broken by the grunts of effort of the hunters once they now in turn bludgeoned her. Butchering her, until the gravely battered mermaid eventually dropped to the floor, still barely living but all of her previous defiance and ferocity cleaved out of her by those blades. Will not being able to explain it but once he now saw that mermaid laying there, dying, he was filled with a emotion that he could only describe as symphathetic…For although he acknowledged that creature to have just almost singlehandedly killed a dozen of men out of mere bloodthirst, he knew her to have done it out of mere instinct…will to survive. The second mermaid seemingly sharing his sentiments, but the fate of the other creature left her but enraged herself as her briefly anguished features were once more contorted by blind rage and she let out a livid snarl of her own. So feral and irated that it once again caused shivers to dance across Will’s skin as she then instantly attacked, swooping over to the group of hunters while her appendages shot out and brought down two of them, the first one meeting his end courtesy of her fangs tearing through his chest and leaving him bleeding on the floor, where the second one received a notable gash on his neck. Will rising and starting to inch back towards the ladder just as she was about to kill him, however captain Savington whacking her on the face with the butt of his pistol before leaping backwards once she was unfazed by his attack. Still as she next ploughed through the pirate to get to him, gravely injuring another in an attempt of reaching him, Will gasped once he now saw her to be successfully cut by a couple of the other hunters’ blades. However as heedless to this as had been the other mermaid to her own such injury her simply charging forth, flinging her attackers aside with her appendages until yet another surprising gunshot sounded in the air and Will saw the mermaid to freeze, halting, before next coughed out blood. Will’s eyes darting over to the stage area where the auctioneer had re-emerged, holding the very pistol that had stopped the mermaid from killing her catcher.

The auctioneer had regrouped with what also remained of his men and he now motioned them to move forth, to aid the hunters to dispatch the injured creature, as she was then instantly attacked from all sides, her warning and even if hair-raising hisses doing little to stop the pirates as they did as before. Cutting her down, battering her with vicious strikes, directed mainly at her feet and she swiftly lost her footing, her claws cleaving the air uselessly as with only a few blows of those modified weapons she was defeated. While halfway down Will’s heart this time stopping as he turned just briefly to see the mermaid to get pummeled by those ruthless slashes, until he spied the men to stay their hands and retreat. Will sliding down the rest of the ladder and rushed to Jack’s side once he saw the hunters to disperse, his chest this time tightening at the downright pitiable sight of the mermaid now laying on the floor on her back. Her whole body riddled with fresh wounds, the worst of all however being the state of her legs, which made sure that she would never rise from that spot again…If she even would’ve…Bleeding profusely, and she continued to gasp for air, now truly looking like a helpless fish caught on dry land.

Utter silence had now descended within the butcher shop. The last of the frightened spectators to have by then fled, and now the still alive men gathered around the injured mermaid with slow steps, the hunters however keeping their distance once the auctioneer ambled over to the creature after gazing about the gruesome remains of the numerous people with knitted eyebrows. After taking in the overall devastation finally the peeved man halting next to the mermaid who didn’t have the strength to lunge at him as she clearly desired, her eyes although filled with pain still glowering at him murderously before closing shortly, and Will could’ve sworn to detect a faint sound of growling to emanate from her throat once the man approached. Her however still simply laying there as the auctioneer’s uncaring eyes swept over her mutilated body, until he dropped the pistol from his shoulder and pushed it into his belt once he was confirmed the creature to still draw breath. Next beckoning to her dismissively as his men came by his side, waiting for his orders.

“Kill it and bring the carcass to the back room. We’ll have to cut what is left in parts and sell the creature off piece by piece”, the auctioneer mused. His passive eyes once more studying the mermaid to see the extent of the done damage and after all not finding it too extensive to stop him from recovering some of the lost earnings. Will now however getting pulled into action again by his alarming remark, all pairs of eyes soon shifting to him in honest surprise as he spoke up.

“I’ll buy her!”

Will rushed forth before the blades that had been pointed at the mermaid could strike their finishing blow, raising his arms a little as walked over to the men, and exchanged a remarkable look with the bemused auctioneer who however then recognized him. Will’s gaze instead briefly dropping to the woman at his feet, and he didn’t even realize to feel ashamed of her nudity as only looked back at her in pity once he noticed her to angle her head towards him and the men looming over her in turns. Despite of her delirium and feeble state her now clearly snarling at them ominously, but it was a faint sound compared to the bloodcurdling utterance she would’ve usually been able to produce. Despite of the mermaid’s evident displeasure of it Will now coming to stand by her side while the auctioneer gauged at him, skeptical.

“Ye? And why should I sell her to ye? I could just harvest what is left of this beast and still turn in a substancial profit…” the auctioneer asked mockingly, leveling a significtant look at Will’s worn, poor attire that was now even further begrimed by his previous tumble to the floor, until then sounded very much like Jack earlier upon motioning towards the mermaid’s battered body in a haughty manner, sneering. “For I doubt ye lad to have the funds to persuade me to turn me back to an undownable chance for riches…For even in this condition she’s worth much more than a common chest of treasures.”

Will half leered at the man’s reply as now briefly knelt by the mermaid, to have a better look of her injuries, and with a concerned frown found them to be beyond severe. Him taking in those several gashes and puncture wounds that caused her to bleed to the shop’s floor plentifully, where her legs were completely mutilated by the numerous slashes of equal number of blades. Any other more reasonable man to have realized then her not to make it, but he wasn’t currently led by reason but mere emotion, after witnessing the manner the other mermaid had been so mercilessly slain by the hunters Will not wishing to witness the same to happen to her as well…The least to see her die like the other one had.

“So what’s it gonna be lad? What do ye have to give me for this beast?” the auctioneer asked, taunting Will as exchanged an amused look with his men, until simply cast a look of disclaim at knelt Will, who next stood. Facing the man as after but a fleeting hesitation Jack spied him to dig out the same pouch that contained the remains of his money, Will’s stern scowl softening a tad as his fingers squeezed around it curtly before he unlaced the pouch and dug out his means of payment. Taking aback the auctioneer once he now saw Will to be holding a large pearl, perfectly round one with a pink shimmer to it, which he’d found during one of the times he’d been diving around the coast of Port Royal…Wishfully searching for any signs of mermaids not long after arriving there aboard the _Dauntless_. Also Jack giving the tiny treasure an astounded look while Will returned the actioneer’s gaze with but grim eyes. Nodding down to it.

“I have this. If I give you this will that cover the loss of your earnings?” he asked, after a moment of thought the auctioneer taking the pearl into his own hand to inspect it, while Jack leveled but a doubtful look at the young man. Soon quirking an eyebrows upon tipped his head at the auctioneer whose eyes had by then widened by the perfection of the pearl, the man smiling down to it greedily.

“Ye do know that he is never going to return that?” Jack mused, Will giving him a quizzical glance as that was exactly the point of this transaction.

“I don’t care”, he answered with a hushed voice. Giving reason for Jack to cast him another doubtful look until he peered at Will but thoughtfully, once more quirking an eyebrow at his resolute response.

“Really now? For that would make me suspect ye to be far more enamored with this man eating sea ghoul than the lass ye’ve been so hellbent on rescuing.”

Will gasped at that, but he said nothing to annul or confirm it. His attention returning back to the auctioneer and he studied the man, Jack’s earlier hunch then proving correct however as the auctioneer soon slipped the pearl into his pocket. This time around flashing but a wicked grin at Will as he continued, narrowing his eyes.

“Will you let her go?”

“Aye, it be a beautiful pearl…But nothing compared to the wealth that selling a mermaid will bring”, he finally replied, Will blinking in fleeting stupefaction until the auctioneer then motioned for two of his men to slay the mermaid. But just as he was about to turn away Will leapt forth, taking hold of the swordhand of the buccaneer who’d first tried to bring down his weapon to kill the creature and forced the man back while kicked the second one to his groin. Depriving him of his weapon as well, shoving the other man to the floor just as the auctioneer then strode over to Will. Pointing another pistol at his head just as his goons scrambled back to their feet. Hurrying to their employer’s side.

“Away with ye now or I’ll blast a bullet through yer skull.”

Will stiffened, but the sound of yet another pistol getting cocked then claimed both his and the auctioneer’s attention, and Will turned his head to see Jack to be also pointing his weapon at the man. Jack soon after ambling to Will’s side, his eyes however never leaving the bemused auctioneer.

“Do as the lad says…or let such bullet do the decision making for ye”, Jack urged, casting passing glances at the men on the auctioneer’s sides until bared his blade. Next tickling the man’s chin with the tip of his cutlass that was soon joined by Will’s once he claimed a fallen sword from the hey and blood covered floor. The auctioneer finally giving in with a vexed grimace once the second weapon settled to point at his ribs, threatening to plunge between them. “Also, we’ll be wanting that pearl back…For the bargain was struck and although we’re all honest blackguards here, young William here is something entirely different…and surely would rejoice over that piece of common treasure ye stole from him.”

“Take it. Just take it and the damn creature, and leave!” he stated, leering at Jack until begrudgingly dug out the pearl from his pocket and threw it to Will, until the auctioneer beckoned for his men to move away from the pair of men. Only after all of them had retreated several steps from him and Will Jack putting away his pistol, Will giving his weapon a remarkable look until his focus went back to the auctioneer and his lackeys who were currently walking across the large room until eventually disappeared behind a door that was hidden in the shadows at the corner of the butcher shop.

“Didn’t you say that bullet was meant for someone in particular?” Will asked, observing Jack to also give his pistol a slight glance, which however didn’t reveal much of his current ponders once Will now cast his eyes down at the mermaid. Kneeling again once for his surprise he discovered her to have lost consciousness, her wounds to have taken the best of her survival instinct, and despite of his reservation he quickly found to be right once he claimed a jacket from one of the dead buccaneers and placed it over her body. Upon not spotting her as much as stir due to the act him then gingerly raising her from the floor for the great bewilderment of Jack, who regardless then started to walk over to the exit in silence. Granting Will with a very evasive reply as the young man soon continued. “Why waste it on some arbitrary miscreant coming your way?”

“I remember to have mentioned the shot to have not been meant for ye…But that doesn’t necesarily apply to every other man prone to yet devil me more than ye did at the time.”

Will said nothing to that as they then walked out of the butcher shop, Will lingering a bit longer to make sure none of the attendees of the auction were still lounging nearby, until followed Jack and mingled with the overall bustle of the nearby street. Making sure the mermaid to be mostly covered by the jacket for them not to attract too much attention to themselves, which however quickly proved impossible once a few men despite of their heavy intoxication stole a glimpse of the mermaid’s enchanting face. Forcing Will to use her still wet hair to cover her mien from view of any other curious bystanders sparing a moment from their ongoing tussles to take note of them passing by, Jack soon shifting his own focus to the now considerably tame creature until leveled a significant look at the young man in his company.

“Just sayin’, mate…That thing is going to bite yer helping hand right off once she wakes...So this particular act of valor is grand waste of yer such chivalry if ye ask me.”

Will let out a deep sigh. Glancing down at the unconscious mermaid in his arms, and although he wasn’t going to admit it knew Jack to be probably right, therefore him simply gazing ahead. Bypassing the stir of sudden rapture now much more quicker a mere look at her beauty created in him, actually being able to tear his eyes away from the beyond lovely features of the creature that however were but a mask to her true face…The face of a monster.

“I know.”

Suddenly Jack came to a halt beside a jewelry shop at the end of the street they were following, which by the looks of it seemed very rundown and downright abandoned to Will, but regardless he then watched Jack to waltz right in after a moment of thought. Only once he’d disappeared inside Will noticing the pirate to have pilfered his money pouch and his wondering glance turned into an instant irritated scowl that didn’t mellow down once the man soon returned and threw the pouch back to him, by the weight of it Will being able to tell a third of the remaining coins to have disappeared, and he would’ve now glared at Jack in honest anger had his reason of spending a fortune of his savings been explained by the item the pirate next presented him with. Jack handing him a chain which was not meant for carrying jewels or other trinkets worn around one’s neck, being much sturdier which made Will clueless of its actual purpose, nor was it made of solid gold, but enough gilded to bring discomfort to the apparent creature Jack had purchased it for. Thinking ahead of the probable outcomes of them ending up with a wounded mythical creature of most precarious nature, and not liking a single one. Will giving the chain a confused look as examined it, until Jack explained himself and the purpose of that chain. Deciding to cast his doubts and downright demur aside for the sake of the lad’s foolishly kind heart, although he found his compassion but destructive, as would be proven with time by either the whelp getting himself eaten by the beast or him losing his only chance to get his beloved _Pearl_ back simply because the young Turner had the vexing disposition of considering himself too good of a man to turn a blind eye to the suffering of even such a monster…Did he know the said creature or not.

“Ye might be stupid enough to waste yer sympathies over a creature that is naturebound to kill sods like you…But at least do yerself the favor of not making yourself the most willing mouthful for her to gobble down by placing some protection over yer delectable hide.”


	4. Debts Owed and Squared

She was so beautiful. So it was hard to imagine that under that perfect, alluring exterior laid a bloodthirsty being living off of nothing less than the flesh of his kind…That should she now awaken and find him leant over her he would most likely have his arm ripped clean off until he would come to share the exact same fate of that assistant who’d been bitten to death by her fellow mermaid…That’s what Will thought as he withdrew from the unconscious mermaid he'd just settled onto the bedding of the rickety bed, enabling his eyes to roam about her features again and discover them to be as little monstrous as before. But even he knew her practically angelic appearance was there only to deceive him, to now lull him into a false sense of security that would leave him vulnerable to his most likely demise, strangely, even Will knew her to be a dangerous monster, and even while so hurt him to be least safe while in the same room with her, he still couldn’t bring himself to fear her…Would that make him but a stupid fool or not, for more than fear he was actually feeling somewhat at ease…Fulfilled now that in form of this wounded supernatural creature now utterly tamed by her injuries all those ludicrous memories that had plagued him in guise of many past nightmares had turned out to be all true…That he after all hadn’t been merely insane to search for imaginary tailed fish women from the raging surges during many tempests.

Will sighed as pulled back his hand that had lingered just above her forehead. In passing urge to touch her more, to make sure she was real and not some fallacious figment of his imagination, instead finding his previous effort of trying to cool her down futile as she was burning up. Her fever so unbelievably high that her complexion felt downright scalding to the touch, and quite frankly he couldn’t believe her to be still alive…And came to doubt right then what good of his act of saving her would do should she now die here in this wretched inn he’d brought her.

Frustrated Will dropped the rag back into the cracked bowl, the water doing little to aid him any further as it was no longer clean, fully tainted by the mermaid’s dark blood that only added to the reminder of her being everything but human. Looking like watered ink, Will frowning at this peculiarity briefly until remembered not to be too surprised after all the strange things he’d come to lay witness that night, him to have crossed paths with the girl who’d once saved him being the least of those oddities.

After parting ways with Jack with the instructions to meet him at the docks first thing in the morning Will had sought out the nearest inn, knowing fully well not being able to roam the streets with a bleeding mythical creature that could awaken at any moment and in the worst case of scenario start to devour any human in sight in her desire to get away, and luckily his search had been brief as he’d found himself at the doorstep of a tavern called _Scabby Sailor_ that also provided lodgings for its patrons. Managing to acquire himself a room with the little money he had left, assuming that the matron of the inn who’d escorted him to his reserved room perhaps had taken some pity over the gravely injured woman in his arms by accepting the slight shortage of coins she’d at first demanded of him, although by the looks of her overall peeved exterior he’d assumed her not to care all that much. But who could’ve blamed her with a patronage such as this, only rowdy pirates and other scoundrels swarming the place day after day wreaking havoc.

At his request the woman had brought him some supplies to tend for the mermaid’s injuries, but by the looks of the quite dirty looking rags Will had been given he wasn’t after all able to believe in the mere goodness of her heart. The brought water hardly boiled and leaking from the broken basin she had dumped in his arms before twirling around and slamming the door shut behind her, Will suspecting that she probably had been left feeling upset over the lost earnings. But then again, the state of the room and the whole inn didn’t give much initiative for Will to be willing to pay even as much as he had of a night there, if he hadn’t been in such a hurry to get the mermaid somewhere at least remotely safe. The place looking like crumpling down any moment, and everywhere he looked could be found clear signs of the numerous previous guests who’d stayed there, blood and all kinds of other splatters and smears decorating the walls and the floor, as well as the broken furniture. Not to mention the tattered sheets which were downright squalid as was the whole room, and after stepping inside Will had at first decided against of bringing the mermaid to such a room…Until he’d been reminded of the place he actually was in, and realized to not come upon any better place to treat her in this town dominated by pirates.

Despite of his desire to help Will was no doctor. He didn’t know what he was doing, and the wounds and bruises inflicted onto the mermaid were too serious for him to do anything else than try to clean them the best to his ability, but even that proved impossible due to the amount of all the blood. More continuing to flow from those several stab wounds and slashes he’d managed to wipe clean, and quickly Will found his efforts rather futile, in a sense that even he’d managed to take her out of the auctioneer’s lair he would not be able to save her after all. Because even if she wasn’t some weak mortal like him, the state of her would surely become the end of even a supernatural creature like her. Will’s hand halting during his intent of brushing the drenched rag over the worst of her injuries at the thought of that, him then coming to wonder that perhaps Jack had been right by saying his pity to be misplaced…That he should simply be afraid of her instead and not waste his time in trying to rescue a monster like her.

Will was startled as out of the blue he then saw the mermaid to move, after an hour of total stillness aside for her all the while weakening breathing her body jerking just slightly under his touch, until her eyes then snapped open. To meet his astounded gaze until Will’s heart leapt to his throat as suddenly she lashed at him, her claws making contact with his raised forearm as he threw himself away from her at the sound of the hiss that rose from the pit of her stomach at the sight of him being so close to her as she found the bit of strength needed to defend herself once more from somewhere. Before Will could so as much as say a word of reassurance of him not wishing her no harm the mermaid recoiled, undoubtedly lightheaded by the unfamiliar frailty of her usually so tough body until her icy irises darted down to his own wound and she lunged. Her eyes this time flashing white briefly as she took a steely grip of his arm and swooped down, Will having time but to feel her fangs to scrape against his already ruptured skin, drawing a little more blood while her lips closed around his exposed wound.

In a rush of panic Will felt her tongue to sweep over the ulcer until against his expectation of having a chunk of his flesh bitten off she instead begun to drink his blood, sucking out a few long, quick draughts until he found his reason and darted fully away from her. His chair falling to the floor with a loud rattle as he jumped to his feet and instinctively retreated against the table that sat at the other side of the narrow room, the mermaid letting him go, although he knew her to be still strong enough to keep him still with her vice like hold. His breaths coming out as shocked gusts as his palm rose to cradle his injured arm, frowning in outrage while returned the mermaid’s grim gaze in first true flicker of fear at the dawning realization of her to have actually attacked him. A trickle of his blood dripping down the creature’s jaw as she simply stared back at him silently, causing cold shivers to run down his spine at the final understanding of her truly being a flesh eating monster, until she next winced quite visibly. To have used the little energy she had gathered for her minor lunge at Will, and now once more weakened she slumped against the dirty sheets, replacing his fear with compassion. Panting heavily, shaking due to the previous action that clearly had drained her, taking a couple of deep, laborious breaths while remained slumped on her side until found just a little more strength to roll over to her back. Despite of her feeble state her eyes however never losing their piercing, harsh look as they once more peered to bemused Will’s direction until they soon fluttered shut.

Will calmed himself with a long sigh as watched the suffering mermaid to try to move, each tug of a muscle bringing upon great deal of pain that further drained her of energy. Him giving the amount of blood staining the already filthy sheets a pitying look, even if he perhaps shouldn’t have after the previous act of her taking a forceful sample of his blood…However still not harming him, not really. At the understanding of this him then letting go of his wound as approached the bed, witnessing the mermaid to fight against unconsciousness, undoubtedly not wishing to be out of it while in his company, but couldn’t stop her injuries wearing her out. After a brief struggle her head soon dropping against the pillow, with careful, and even hesitant movements that nonetheless were fueled by his compassion Will eventually closing the distance between himself and the mermaid to now take a seat on the edge of the bed. To simply gauge at the now asleep creature that in this form without her gills and fins looked nothing of the sort, seeming like a mere fragile, divine woman left bedridden by the high fever that plagued her. Her delicate fingers resting on her stomach leisurely, unlike before without any visible claws showing no intention of ripping him apart, and as Will now measured the gravely wounded mermaid noticing her to look perhaps a little better from before, which instead caused him to give his own gash a wondering glance. In the light of his earlier musings over the matter fathoming her to be altogether so pitiful to him that he after all found himself unable to deem her as the monster Jack had instantly labeled her…For he couldn’t stop himself from being led on by his past sentiments relating to this creature, and hence it had been mainly his intebtedness that had driven him to save her from those pistols of the auctioneer’s men…Even he perhaps would’ve shown greater kindness by letting her die instead of rendering her to experience such agony.

But now that her guard was down, those fangs and claws of hers rendered useless against him Will then sighed again as picked up the water basin from the bed along with the linen the matron of the establishment had been kind enough, or more like in the mood of, acquiring for him. Despite of knowing it most likely useless as the hour was late and he was set to depart from this island within few short hours, starting to bandage her wounds. Amidst removing the last of the sheet from her lean frame spotting the chain that still connected her to the headboard, unfastening it from her wrist with a regretful new frown once he saw the red abrasion on her skin from where the gold had burned it, until cast a half imploring half stern look at her. Lastly stealing a peek at the round, ornamented scar on her palm that thanks to a single quirk of fate had unexpectedly come to tie her to him.

“Don’t die.”

* * *

Will shifted the angle of his head in his sleep, until was startled awake once it slipped from the propped position against the wall, him gasping out of the slumber he’d apparently drifted in and shot up in his seat. His eyes instantly darting over to the bed and to see the mermaid, surprisingly not laying on the mattress unconscious any longer but sitting on the bed fully awake, dressed in the shirt he’d previously discovered from the room and covered her with, the cup he’d filled with his own blood last night before falling asleep instead now empty and laying on the floor abandoned where she’d apparently thrown it after finishing her prepared meal…And truly as he’d suspected his blood seemed to have helped her to regain her strength, despite of to have deemed so Will giving the cup then a fleeting wary look until his focus went back to the considerably more lively mermaid. It now taking less time for him to be freed of the rapture her beautiful face was designed to place a man under.

“Are you feeling better?”

The mermaid didn’t speak. Saying nothing as simply sat there huddled against the opposite wall, as the silence continued and she simply stared back at him with those same fierce eyes that always bordered close to a leer Will then sighed in defeat once the silence continued undisturbed. Rising to go pick up the cup, giving it a thoughtful but also a bit uneasy look until glanced up to the mermaid.

“I figured some more of my blood would help you recover since only a taste of it broke your fever”, he spoke instead, then hesitating a moment as he halted in middle of the room. To eye at the guarded creature also sizing him up with attentive, piercing eyes until they were briefly cast down as a sign of assumed concur, Will then approaching her as her gaze lastly focused on the strip of linen that was tied around his cut palm.

The mermaid flinched once he sat onto the bed again, just barely on the edge though not to startle her and his movement was slow and careful as he saw the muscles under her skin to strain, him next extending a hand towards her. To have a feel of her forehead to see whether she was still feverish, his intent however cut once she let out an instant snarl, her head lashing out in an attempt of biting him. Her teeth just barely missing his fingers, as a warning of him to not come any closer as she then retreated into the farthest corner of the bed. However the act causing her to let out now a very human like bemoan and she doubled over, Will sighing after jerking his hand back, next instead inching it towards the sheet covering the mermaid’s legs. As expected finding mostly dried blood on the sloppy bandages which hadn’t been the most ideal as he raised it, Will to have feared them not to be indeed clean enough and hence causing the wounds to be infected, but despite of her condition to have greatly and even shockingly improved from a few hours ago he assumed her to be still far from being able to walk on her own. The wounds still too fresh, which was evident by the sight of them as the mermaid had seemingly tried to pry the restraining dressings away that hadn’t been there before, perhaps missing their purpose of helping her.

“You shouldn’t move. You’re badly hurt. I did my best to tend to your wounds but…I’m not a doctor”, Will said, kindly and made an attempt of smiling, which naturally wasn’t returned by the mermaid. Her simply scowling back at him without a word, Will not either being able to blame her for her distrust of him, as it had been his fellow men who’d wounded her so. Although the only similarity Will shared with those particular scoundrels was that he was a human like them, with a fleeting contemptuous frown at their foul actions Will next glancing out of the window. Now realizing the quandary he was in by the light of the sunrise that streamed through the dusty, unwashed panels.

“It’s already morning”, he mused, to himself as this time frowned at the inescapable fact of how hours always seemed to fly too quickly. Even then damning his luck to have run into this kind of trouble right here and now when he had no time to deal with such an affair. While knowing Jack to be expecting to see him at the harbor shortly him then letting out a deep sigh, turning his gaze back to the cautious mermaid observing him with a keen eye. No doubt ready to jump at him at any wrong move he would make.

“I can’t leave you here. You don’t belong here, and I can’t risk you dying to your wounds in this room, nor have somebody find out who you are…by you sinking your teeth to whoever would step inside…So I have to take you with me”, Will said, at first only thinking aloud until he soon decided upon this after considering his options, which he had none. Hence him then facing the mermaid with an earnest expression, realizing that he had no choice but to take her along, as he sure as hell couldn’t bring himself to leave her…No matter what Jack would say about it and how crazy it would make him…Although upon closer inspection considering to bring along a mermaid to their rescue mission of Elizabeth did sound rather insane.

“Then why not just kill me?” the mermaid said then all of a sudden. Speaking for the first time, and Will would’ve been lying if he had claimed his heart not to have jumped at the clear, sweet sound of it. Her voice that he naturally recognized but realized to have only changed from that voice of a little girl’s still however having the same familiar chime of allure that reminded him of the thrall of the siren song he’d heard last night even under that mordacious tone she’d used, enrapturing him briefly like her single gaze had at the auction once he’d first looked upon her there, until his mind was cleared by her following words. Turning him back go serious. “Since you humans enjoy slaughtering us so much, why not use that sword to run me through to spare those poor souls who could come upon me?”

At that Will let out a gloomy laugh, and he wasn’t actually smiling as he returned the mermaid’s stern gaze. “You’re one to talk. You killed many men at that auction.”

The mermaid’s eyes now narrowed dangerously, her wearing an acrid smile once she replied in anger. “Then why hesitate? You know what I am…Why waste your sentiments on a creature who could do the same to you?”

“Because I’m indebted to you…Perhaps in more ways than I have yet come to understand, but because of that I cannot just abandon you. Or let you die”, Will told her. Maybe even surprising the mermaid, but if he had, it was visible only in that curt flicker of emotion that appeared in her eyes, but which he was unable to decipher until they turned back to grim once she scowled up to him from under her lashes.

“Then let me go”, she snapped, ordered.

“Go where? Back to the sea?” Will asked, wrinkling his brows as cast a remarkable look at the her legs riddled with those gruesome bruises and ulcers, skeptical. “You’d drown. For you can’t swim with your tail this damaged…can you?”

The mermaid looked away from him, also casting a look at her mutilated feet but her mien was deadpan as she replied, not an ounce of her ferocity toning down however even she agreed him to be right. Wincing again as she tried to move her legs, finding it too painful. “It is not of your concern, _human._ ”

“I saved you. So you’re depended on me as long as your wounds take to heal and you are able to swim again…And until then you are my concern.”

“I need not the protection of feeble quarry as long as I have my fangs and claws that would turn you inside out in a second”, the mermaid retorted, her tone but scathing this time around as she after all didn’t come to take his compassion kindly. Despising him for it if that murderous glower she leveled at him was anything to go by, but although Will understood her not being able to trust him after what she’d been through however not helping but directing a slight scowl of his own at her. Of disbelief, as it was also true that instead of harming her he had stopped those men from killing her and done nothing but cared for her, his solemn features turning even more grave as he eyed at her, bypassing her threat.

“I know you have no reason to believe me. But just for now put aside that pointless pride that does little to change your state and just let me help you…Because if you won’t you’ll be in far greater danger of dying than I am.”

The mermaid said nothing to that. Simply stared at him, her expression as stolid as ever, but Will once more took her silence as concur. As her finally seeing eye to eye with him at least in the fact that should she continue to spurn his aid it wouldn’t then make a difference in regards to her fate even if he was to draw his cutlass and slay her with it. For the longer she would stay on land without legs the quicker she would become known to the residents of Tortuga…As well as the auctioneer and his men. Because Will was certain that the matron of the inn would not put it past herself to let it slip to someone of him to have arrived here with a profusely bleeding woman, just as the auctioneer had lost his main attraction...By accident or otherwise. Even though a journey to track down a notorious pirate ship wasn’t at all safer either.

“I’m leaving this island today. And you’ll have to come with me”, Will told her. Standing now as walked closer to the window, to this time direct a real look at the docks that now in the daylight he discovered to not be all that far from the inn. The severity of his own mien softening then however as he faced the creature, smiling a tad. “I know that’s the last thing you want…But you’re in no condition to stay here alone. You can’t protect yourself as you are, not until your wounds have healed.”

“And you can?” the mermaid asked, despite of the honey that laced her words only spiteful, even she did also sound to be close to laughing at his remark. Causing Will to turn back to earnest again. “And what would you know of that, human? Of _me_? I’m far stronger than you even while half dead. You know nothing of what I’m capable of.”

“I saw what those men did to you…Saw those wounds…And what you did to them.”

“I could just eat you. Devour you and get out of here on my own once my strength would be renewed by your flesh”, the mermaid replied, darkly, Will raising his eyebrows at her icy glower that even if aimed to intimidate him, didn’t.

“You can try. But you can’t even walk with those legs…” Will agreed, more dismal tone to his voice as well until he then sighed. “And taken the nature of our acquaintance I would rather hope you wouldn’t…at least until you’re better and I have succeeded in what I came all this way here to do.”

Another silence ticked by as the mermaid did not respond. Simply returned his gaze with that relentless, guarded leer like stare, studying him. Will’s smile widening as he however deemed to have noticed something to have changed in those usually but cool eyes of hers that didn’t quite stare right through him at the moment, signaling that perhaps she was also thinking back to the time of their first encounter all those years ago. Looking at him notably less warily, in a similar way she had during their meeting at the auction…Now in clear recognition.

“Please…Let me help you. Just like you helped me once…” Will continued, soon making a new, small smile once he saw the mermaid to gaze down as a sign of new concur. Despite of her hate of his kind her also realizing to have no other choice but to believe him, Will now going back to the bed, reclaiming his seat.

“Do you remember me?” he asked suddenly, curious as in turn studied the mermaid, to see did the severity of her mien then morph into anything that he could’ve assumed as consent…That he hadn’t imagined it to see this creature to recognize him like he had recognized her, after a moment of eyeing at him silently the mermaid soon tipping her head. Angling her jaw as cast a grim look at him, her voice nonetheless not as harsh as it had been before.

“I just spared you. I would never help a human”, she said, familiar caustic edge to her delivery but she only caused Will to smile now genuinely.

“So you do remember me…Which means I didn’t just dream about it…About you.”

There had now been clear shift in the mermaid’s expression as she looked back at him with a distinct thoughtful look until gazed away from him, prying her eyes away from his as dragged her legs closer to herself, Will giving her a pitying look as behold the torment the act of folding her legs against her torso created.

“I know you don’t like me…But I’m asking you to trust me. I won’t hurt you, for if I wanted to do that I would’ve already done so while you were asleep…Or let those men kill you back at that auction”, Will continued. Exchanging another look with the mermaid until his lips were next graced by a new, more friendly smile.

“My name is Will. Will Turner.”

The mermaid now gave him a jaded sideways look. “What do I care of your name? You are just one human among many.”

“I suppose. But I’m glad you’re real. I often wondered whether or not you were really there that day or did I just imagine it all after hitting my head…That it was pirates that sank my ship…But it was real. You were really there”, Will answered, next leveling a quizzical look at the mermaid who appeared to be taken aback by his words, along with his overall ease to be around her, especially after laying witness to the slaughter that had taken place at the auction that should’ve suggested him to fear to meet a similar end in her hands…Hence killing her instead of expressing this manner of actual interest in her. “What’s your name?”

The mermaid smiled again, but this time her smile was scornful, amused. Causing Will to frown pensively until he soon enough reached a conclusion by her tell-taling lack of an answer. Amusing the creature further before her expression turned back to solemn as she matched his stare, her voice gaining a rather arcane edge that held an ominous tone to it as well once she finally replied.

“You don’t have a name?”

“Like you my kind is born to live until we die…But unlike to you what purpose is a name for us who who live only to rob men of their souls to gain our own? And since it’s that existence that makes us mere monsters, isn’t that a name enough for you to use?”

Will was surprised by her reply, but after a brief moment of thought he broke their eye contact upon standing. Giving in in his slight attempt of familiarizing himself with this mermaid of his past, as expected finding it futile and hence next sighing in defeat, taking hold of a pair of breeches he’d also discovered from the room and tossing them onto the bedding. The mermaid giving the garment now but an openly confused look.

“We’ll have to go. Put those on if you can and be ready to leave in a moment.”

“Where will you take me?” the mermaid demanded, meeting Will’s eyes grimly, who only smiled at her. A hint of humor in his voice as he elaborated, baffling the creature further.

“To the sea.”


	5. The Gift

“….All of them, fateful hands before the mast, every man worth his salt…And crazy to boot.”

Will frowned as he picked up Gibbs’ remark while he was approaching the man and his captain, crossing the rather busy pier that was swarming with pirates preparing their respective vessels to cast off, including the apparent crew Gibbs had promised to provide them with, and whom now stood at the end of the said pier. Being inspected by the first-mate and their new captain, who by the looks of it was far from impressed…Although anything less hardly was to be expected in a place such as this, island inhabited by all manner of dregs of society from drunkards to common riffraff of the most heinous kind…Which in itself would’ve been a perfect requirement for someone aspiring to lead a life of a pirate, if it weren’t for the overall sleazy look of those men Gibbs had discovered, clearly not appreciated by the man in business of enlisting them.

Will gave the mermaid in his arms a brief look as he dodged a group of passing pirates busy loading a collection of crates and barrels aboard a nearby vessel, discovering that dark look in her eyes to have not disappeared and that she in fact appeared even further morose from before the closer they’d gotten to the docks and the more people they’d come across during their short walk. Will however not blaming her wary and downright hostile way of peering at the people they passed, cringing at every turn whenever even one of them had steered too near, as she probably had never been this close to so many humans in her life…Not to mention to be carried by one after almost having herself slaughtered by a number of other men didn’t help, so although Will felt more than apprehensive of bringing her out in the open like this, risking her to suddenly going off in a rampage in her evident dread of being surrounded by swarms of people, he however still only walked forward. To have managed to coax the mermaid into following him, who had been extremely reluctant to do so nonetheless, even she had let him to carry him out of the room of that inn all the way to here due to the very fact of her being quite depended on him for the time being if she wanted to survive. So after eyeing at her a bit, to make sure she was at least somewhat calm enough for him to go through with his plan and join Jack and the others Will bettered his hold of her after noticing her to gasp for pain, his movements now more gentle Will shifting his attention back to the group of pirates. Watching Jack to lastly focus his gaze onto a man who reached not farther than his waist, and his expression encouraged Will to then speak his thoughts out loud in place of him.

“So this, is your able-bodied crew?” he spoke up, drawing all the attention in turn as every single man turned to him at the sound of his sardonic notion. After exchanging a remarkable look with both Jack and Gibbs Will coming to a halt beside the duo, to examine the cluster of sailors well past their prime. Jack taking notice of the mermaid in his arms, and after giving her a rather taken aback look upon finding her in such good shape compared to the state of her from last night he simply shot a skeptical look at the young man after eyeing at her in suspicion. Shifting his eyes back to the row of pirates once the mermaid scowled back at him the instant his gaze settled back onto her for a bit.

“William, good for ye to have joined us…with such comely company”, Jack mused, dismissively however as then passed Will and walked by the men waiting to be evaluated. Jack’s focus soon fixating onto an elderly man with a vibrant parrot on his shoulder, narrowing his eyes at first at the animal until cast his gaze down to the man himself.

“You sailor!”

“Cotton, sir”, Gibbs clarified, Will looking past Jack as also cast a wondering look at the man once the pirate began to question him, to question his resolve.

“Mr. Cotton…Do you have the courage and fortitude to stay true and follow orders in the face of danger and most certain death?”

There was a brief silence as the sailor simply looked over to Gibbs, vexing Jack who then made a grimace. Leaning close to the man upon leveled a grim look in his eyes. “Mr. Cotton! Answer man!”

“He’s a mute, sir. Poor devil had his tongue cut out…So he trained the parrot to talk for him”, Gibbs hurried to explain, indeed the sailor’s tight-lipped manner making then sense as he opened his mouth for the three men to see what remained of his missing body part in question. Causing Will to frown uneasily where the grotesque sight had a greater impact on Jack, the pirate sticking his own tongue out for disgust that however only seemed to amuse the sailor as Gibbs continued.

“No one’s yet figured how.”

“Mr. Cotton’s parrot…Same question”, Jack asked then, somewhat hesitant at first as after a second thought faced the sailor again, looked up to the bird that instantly straightened in attention and pegged him straight in the eye. Fascinated Will craning his neck to follow as the parrot then let out an affirmative squawk, raising its wings, causing Will to arch his brows in surprise.

_“Wind in the sails! Wind in the sails!”_

Will took now slight, actual amusement in the mermaid as saw her to tilt her head at the sound of the parrot speaking, just slightly that it would’ve been left unseen had she not been so close to him. Her peering at the bird in honest interest from under the coat covering her until her piercing eyes moved away, to resume their previous scouring of the glimmering sea.

“Mostly we figure that means yes”, Gibbs stated, giving his captain a small grin as Jack glanced at him in agreement, giving the talking bird a pensive look.

“Of course it does!” he mused, next turning to Will to level a quizzical look at him. “Satisfied?”

“Well you’ve proved them mad”, Will agreed, raising his eyebrows again incredulously as scanned the row of men once more in doubt. Truly not seeing much in these wrecks of men, nor finding them to better their already bad prospects of catching up with the _Black Pearl_ and saving Elizabeth…Suddenly the thought of her now causing Will to pause, as he realized that he hadn’t actually given her much thought since last night…Since venturing into that auction that had had him momentarily forget all about the reasons that had brought him there.

Will gasped at the sudden hiss that reached his ears, him looking down to the mermaid until hastily turned around, moving her away from one of the pirates who’d just now raised their eyes and taken notice of her once the jacket Will had covered her with fell a little from her face. Him to have managed to keep her hidden from the majority of the passerbies’ eyes, but now upon seeing her, givenly drawn in by her beauty the sailor approached them and caused the mermaid to recoil upon his attempt to get closer. Will shifting away from him before she could act on the threat that he could’ve just now spot in her bilious eyes that demanded the man to stay away. Possibly spearing the man a limb just in time before he’d been able to lay a finger on her.

“And what’s the benefit for us?”

Will almost bumped into Jack as during his attempt to continue walking he briefly paused, the distinctly female voice then also causing Will to wonder as like Jack he next peered along the remaining men in the row before finally spotting a certain sailor whose features were mostly concealed by a large brimmed hat. Now suddenly even more hesitant Jack eventually resuming his walk and crept over to the spoken up individual, the truth however dawning on Will faster than it did to Jack even with all his arisen suspicions, as Will next examined that which was visible of the person’s face and soon enough found it to point to a woman rather than another sleazy seafearer. Jack giving her a quick-look over until peered under the hat’s brim, an uneasy expression settling onto his face as his doubts had been proven correct by that pair of harsh, hateful eyes that were now scowling at him. Somehow that look rivarling even the glare of the mermaid in bleakness as Jack then flashed an awkward smirk, removing the woman’s hat and releasing her dark locks that had been tucked under the hat to conceal her identity. Now also Gibbs and the rest of the gathered sailors seeing how she glowered at their captain, not responding to Jack’s smile as he then gave name to a face, clearly not happy about this particular development much to Will’s wonder.

“Anamaria.”

Will gave Jack an amused ghost of a smile as watched his head whip around after Anamaria slapped him, vigorously, ergo not giving any indication things to be any better between her and Jack than it seemed to be with any woman unfortunate enough to have ended up in his favour in any way. Upon recalling their meeting with the pair of wenches Will raising a scornful eyebrow, nodding to the crossed woman currently smiling at the humiliated pirate angrily.

“I suppose you didn’t deserve that one either.”

“No that one I deserved”, Jack admitted, looking actually remorseful for a second until assumed that same carefree mien devoid of any given guilt as faced the woman. Anamaria narrowing her eyes at him while her smile morphed into a poisonous sneer.

“You _stole_ _my_ _boat_!”

“Actually…” Jack answered, Anamaria however having none of his elaborate excuses that undoubtedly had had something to do with the very event that had led to this apparent feud between them. It entertaining Will even further as she slapped Jack for the second time in response, even harder than before, the pirate avoiding to look at clearly mirthful Will as scowled at the woman’s temper. Donning a slightly more contrite facial expression, which Will was however quite certain to be a mere act to soothe Anamaria’s anger. And to lessen the chance of him getting slapped yet again, which seemed highly possible when one only looked at the vexed woman who didn’t seem to be at all affected by the pirate’s following repentant reply.

“Borrowed, borrowed without permission. With every intention of giving it back to ye”, Jack explained himself, his try to downplay his misdeeds only flaring Anamaria’s already fiery temper, and at first Will really thought her to hit him again…As did Jack once she took a step closer while raised her hand to jab an accusing finger to his direction, the pirate brandishing the banana he was holding as a potential weapon to spare him from the woman’s wrath which eventually didn’t led to anything but a death glare.

“But you _didn’t_!”

“You get another one!” Jack hurried to say, after a brief instant of left speechless by Anamaria’s heated response, the banana rising again once the pirate gasped at the woman’s forefinger once more coming close to stab him to his nose.

_“I will.”_

Suddenly seeing an opportunity Will came over to Jack’s side, locking gazes with the exasperated female pirate as her focus shifted from Jack to him. Will deciding to needle at the man on his expense a bit, just because he could…and as a payback for whatever he was yet to face because of him and his antics. “A better one.”

“A better one!” Jack concurred, quick to agree with Will, although had cast a fleeting stunned look at the blacksmith due to his self-assured announcement. At first not seeing the endgame to his intrusion to the conversation and simply smiled at Anamaria sheepishly, until soon watched Will to lean forth and beckon to the faraway silhouette of the _Interceptor_ with a brisk tilt of his head.

“That one.”

“What one?” Jack asked, twirling around to cast a quizzical look at Will, still lost to his true intentions, until Will directed now a rather serious look at the pirate. Jack holding back a cringe as he briefly strayed to look down at the mythical being still cradled in Will’s arms, and who clearly didn’t enjoy having him so close. So with a notable pace back Jack turned to see what the young man and the rest of his crew were looking at, his eyes widening once he noticed the way Anamaria’s anger was swiftly replaced by satisfaction as her eyes scanned the magnificent Navy ship. Despite of his outrage Jack however next finding himself the only one against the just struck bargain, with the sole exception of Gibbs, who was equally stunned by Will’s unexpected ploy as he was.

“ _That one?_ ” Jack contested sullenly, his eyes drilling into Will briefly, but as he only stared back at him matter-of-factly and soon angled his head in an encouraging, or almost coercing manner, and as he then began to receive rather dour looks from both Anamaria and a few other members of the crew at the thought of him going back on his word he forced a gleeful smirk on his lips. Facing Anamaria again.

“Aye, that one. What say you?”

Anamaria as well as the rest of the men were quick to shout out their agreement, and without a word more they then began to gather up their assembled supplies in means of heaving them over to the awaiting longboats. Even the parrot squawking his approval to the just agreed deal until it skulked away along with his owner, with a final scowl Anamaria next snagging her hat from Jack’s grip before joined the rest of the sailors preparing to load the goods aboard their ship. Upon watching her storm off Gibbs finally expressing his concerns over allowing her to sail as one of their crew, coming up to his captain, who to say the least seemed as doubtful of this as did he…And Will understood his concerns perfectly taken the way all the women the pirate knew appeared to treat him.

“No, no, no, no…It’s frightful bad luck to bring a woman aboard, sir”, Gibbs announced, despite of his smile his mien consumed by worry that spoke volumes of his constitution as a sailor…That he was one of those superstitious kind who believed firmly a woman’s presence to bode ill to any sea voyage, but although Will couldn’t tell did Jack actually agree with that, he did then observe the pirate to cast rather pensive looks towards the horizon behind them. Somewhat not quite responding to that which his first mate had taken into discussion as answered.

“It will be far worse not to have her…” Jack stated, Gibbs giving in then with a hardly audible sigh, but his and Will’s attention was then drawn to the island and the apparent murkiness that seemed to loom above its rocky slopes in the faraway distance. Giving other kind of weight then to Jack’s words and with a more concerned mien Gibbs then inclined his head, sharing a brief look with his captain until gave his decision an approving nod.

“Aye. Fell wind and rough waters in the horizon as come this voyage”, Gibbs murmured, to himself mostly before then took off. Will trailing his steps with his gaze and listened to the man shouting out now notably more pressing commands for the pirates to hurry with the yet to be transported cargo. Soon enough however him bettering his hold of the mermaid yet again after blocking her view of Jack with his own body, her to have once more looked like ready to jump at him after her eyes had interlocked with Jack’s for a curt instant, although he could tell by the look of her her to be too weary to actually do so. The pirate however having other plans of letting him leave as he tried to pass him, to follow Gibbs.

“…But when it comes to her”, Jack spoke up, stopping Will from crossing the rest of the pier to go over to the boats. After a curt confused frown him seeing Jack to move his eyes back to the mermaid, this time not recoiling at the sight of her glowering back at him but viciously. “...She’s not coming.”

“What?”

“Ye heard Gibbs. It be enough trouble having one woman on board, yet alone another who is a far greater of a risk to have around…I won’t have me men gobbled up or any way mauled until we’ve reached the _Pearl_ and she…she’ll definitely become a bloody hellion in that sense. Even more than she already is.”

“Jack, I’m not leaving her here. She’s coming with us”, Will argued, trying to push past the pirate, but was taken aback as Jack suddenly drew his sword. Also causing the so far mostly calm remained mermaid to jolt as he leveled his blade in the way of Will’s passage, locking grim gazes with him. Will directing an uneasy look down at the creature as her whole body tensed, him only hoping she wouldn’t act out…But after a while he could feel the way her claws drew out, curling against the creases of his shirt as Jack spoke.

“As yer captain, I rule otherwise. I allowed ye to waste yer reason in helping her, but as mesmerized of her charms as ye may be I’m not having the likes of her on me ship, lad…As there’s too much at stake not only for me but to ye as well to allow you to act on yer arbitrary, manly proclivity of losing yerself into her deceitful appeal…which may as well kill us all.”

“Jack I already told you…I can’t just abandon her. I won’t.”

“Just sayin’, mate…I won’t have me crew’s resolve shaken by a feral beast ye’ve decided to take pity on…against the better judgement of all one would call sensible. Ye did help her, lad. Now just dunk her over to where she came from and be done with this unavailing charity that aids no one.”

“You keep saying so…But so will I keep telling you that I’m not doing that”, Will countered, locking determined gazes with Jack as then said nothing. For the great chagrin of the man.

Jack let out a dramatic sigh at the young man’s stubbornness, his gaze shifting from the adamant Will to the mermaid and back in at first grave disbelief and then dismay, until he put away his weapon. His eyes now latching onto the tear he then noticed in Will’s sleeve and soon enough spotted the bandages wrapping the wound the mermaid had inflicted, even further doubtful the pirate next raising his gaze back to Will in honest confusion. Despite of to have asked this before and gained an answer, still not understanding.

“Why mate? Why do ye care so much of her even she must not give a rat’s arse of ye in return? Even ye have someone in mortal peril who undoubtedly does, enough to have ye rush to her rescue at the cost of yer precious integrity and perhaps freedom?” Jack questioned, causing Will to end up at a loss of words in his lack of an immediate answer as he stared down at him with slightly narrowed eyes. As he tried to fathom that himself him then spotting the mermaid to stop gazing to the ocean and shift her head a bit, as a sign of her to be perhaps also listening in to their conversation and his eyes briefly drifted down to her. After a moment of thought Will soon sighing in turn, him thinking back to the slight exchange he’d had with her once she’d also put his reasons to help her in question, but despite of being sure him to have wanted to help her he still didn’t know exactly why…Even it was true that because of the tie that existed between them, as little and trivial as it was, he couldn’t just walk away…He just couldn’t. So he then replied honestly, not any more aware than Jack was as he met the mermaid’s gaze curtly…To also respond to her, although he’d already explained himself and his reasons to her as much as he’d been conscious of them.

“I don’t know.”

Will couldn’t prepare himself as in that moment the mermaid suddenly shot up in his arms, but not to attack him or Jack who was standing a couple of paces away as was their first assumption, but to fling away the jacket that had kept her concealed from the majority of the outer eyes. Revealing herself, but before Will could understand what was happening he could feel how her claws made contact with his already injured arm again, however barely scraping his skin, but still enough to have him let her go. Will and Jack then watching taken aback as she flopped down to the pier, but before Will could as much as take in her intentions she’d already hauled herself over to the edge of the pier and dropped into the water, escaping. It taking a moment for Will to realize what had just happened but soon enough he was mostly taken over by worry as he instantly thought of her injuries, realizing that by what he’d learned of her last night he knew she wasn’t able to swim in her condition as he saw the shirt she’d been wearing to rise up to the surface a few meters out to the sea…Not long after clear ripples emerging from the depths and the water began to slosh, a quick flap of a tail then confirming his fear to be correct.

“Well good. Saved ye the trouble of throwing her in like a heartless dastard”, Jack remarked, turning away with a swift glance given to Will, but frowned as saw him to dash to the pier’s edge. Staring at the spot the strong splashing was coming from in alarm, his brows drawn into a grim line.

“She’s drowning”, he stated back, dismaying the pirate until Jack simply leveled another incredulous look at him.

“She’s a sea creature, mate. She can’t drown.”

Will didn’t hear him, as without a second thought he dove in once he saw the ripples to lessen and then disappear, his concerns taking the better of him and he began to swim. Searching for the mermaid with his gaze and didn’t have to search for long until her flailing figure trashing helplessly in the water caught his eyes. As much as he’d gathered her seeming to be unable to stay afloat, the sight of her futily trying to use her bruised up tail to stop her from sinking to the seafloor confirming that she was indeed unable to swim. Her arms doing little to support her as her body continued to drag her downward, clear fear visible on her face as she couldn’t understand the sudden frailty that had rendered her so weak, unable to survive in an environment she’d lived her whole life in.

Will hurried his strokes to get to her, but instantly as he took hold of her arm to help her to the surface she flung around, even through her locks that drew a curtain between them Will seeing her to flash her fangs at him. Pulling back, and even with her tail so battered she still used it to tackle him away from her, Will however releasing her just in time to dodge it before it smacked against his torso. Him then simply staying put as after rejecting his help she continued to sink towards the bottom, no matter how much she tried to use her tail to reach the surface on her own, her efforts coming to nothing as then her strength failed her. Will now casting but a compassionate look at her as she gave in, finally reaching the seabed and then simply stayed there, casting her mangled fins downright dismal gazes as her hand then rose to caress the sensitive ulcers, tracing the numerous cuts and jagged gashes that had left her utterly crippled. Blood once more coloring the water around her as after a while Will dared to approach her, slowly diving down to her and resumed his previous hold of her, and surprisingly this time around her reaction to his touch wasn’t as aggressive, although she did try to draw away with a new flash of her fangs. Will however not paying heed to her warning, not retreating this time around as after leveling a soothing look into her callous eyes that once more should’ve just frightened him he only nodded towards the surface. With one more glance given to her injured tail conveying his thoughts to her, that she couldn’t stay down there…That she needed to trust him like before. And despite of the wary glances she gave him she didn’t pull away after all once Will now reached down, first taking hold of her other arm to pull her higher until wrapped his arm around her, kicking himself off the bottom until began to swim to the surface.

Jack followed as Will resurfaced with the mermaid, giving the pair an utterly baffled look as noted the way the creature seemed practically docile while so close to the young blacksmith as he then grabbed the shirt that was still floating right beside them before continued to ladle over to the pier. Hardly surprised in the end as the moment Will managed to carry the mermaid by the docks the pirate observed how she instantly flinched away from him, with a notable hiss bolting away from Will with a glare to accompany her instant retreat. However neither all that taken aback Will then sighing as he gazed at the creature as she grabbed onto the boards, eyeing back at him as distrustfully as ever, not displaying any sign of the previous feebleness that had required a human to rescue her. So as she simply returned his gaze with that same proud, icy stare he’d become familiar with Will then hauled himself out of the water, but upon sitting onto the edge of the pier he noticed how Jack looked over to the mermaid. Laying witness to her injuries then himself as her tail could be clearly seen through the crystal clear water, and by the shift in his mien Will could tell the pirate wasn’t quite as immovable in his earlier resolve as he now could see the state of her himself…While aware of the fact that they simply couldn’t dispose of her by returning her to the ocean, as the very sea was now what would become the end of her.

“If she stays, I stay”, Will announced, rising to his feet to face the dithering pirate whose hesitation wasn’t however noticeable but for that brief instance as he now locked gazes with the young blacksmith as adamant as ever. But so did Will as he stared at Jack, certain the man to be unable to deny him, as after overhearing a piece of his and Gibb’s conversation from last night he knew this pirate to need him for something, and therefore to be unable to leave him behind as well…Taking advantage of that, and indeed after a while Jack dropped his gaze to the mermaid before spotted a piece of torn sail that had been used to cover a patch of bananas a small distance away, yanking it over before threw it at addled Will’s feet.

“Cover her up and load her to the longboat. Wait for the crew to have cast off before bringing her over”, Jack said, after a curt surprise Will then looking towards the more busy part of the pier, thanking their luck to be at the head of the docks where it was more quiet and less cramped. Without a word more Jack then taking off, sauntering over to the boats himself while Will knelt to raise the piece of sail. Understanding Jack’s meaning and was swift to spread the sail onto the pier’s edge, raising his gaze then to see how the mermaid was eyeing at him in askance. Him however ignoring the averse looks he was given as then reached out to her, for her to let him hoist her from the water.

“Come on. Let’s go.”

“Go. Leave”, she snapped back, reverting back to that but scathy self who’d first spoken with him back at that inn. The mermaid that had been nothing but suspicious of him, of his motives, and his display of kindness.

“I already told you that I can’t. Even if I would want to and it would be wiser, I can’t. And you just saw it yourself that you can’t go anywhere with your tail so damaged…And if you stay here, what if that auctioneer or those hunters come upon you and capture you again?”

The mermaid said nothing, but from the way her eyes narrowed he could tell her to agree. Him then slowly extending his hand towards her forearm that was clutching to the pier’s support beam, carefully circling his fingers around it to signal her to still have nothing to fear. That he would be the last person to be afraid of.

“If you want me to stop helping you…Then you’d better not give me further reason to. At least as long as you’re better”, Will continued, the mermaid’s eyes darting up to him, and he imagined her to be perhaps surprised by his words and the compassion they hold as he then offered his other hand to her. For her to make the choice to take it. “Please. I can do that much, so let me. Once your wounds have healed and you are able to swim again, I let you leave. I promise.”

After a curt deliberation that however seemed to be throughout and plagued with utter hesitation the mermaid did then take his hand, still as stoic as ever once with a small smile Will instead then helped her out of the water. Upon turning her over threading his arms around her carefully to place her onto the spread sail, wrapping the fabric around her tail, being careful to cover her fins before handed the drenched shirt to her. Nodding down to it for her to put it on, her however simply pressing it against her chest as peered up to him tensely. Supposedly her to have conformed to his desires enough without putting on any clothing again Will then shaking his head until glanced around, making sure none of the bustling people behind him saw him as he then picked up the fallen coat and placed it over her shoulders, lifting her from the pier. Starting to carry the mermaid towards the end of the pier he spotted to have been emptied of Jack’s crewmen by then, leaving the coast clear for him to smuggle her on board.

“It will take some time until we get to the ship. The sun should dry you so that you get your legs back by then.”

* * *

Naturally upon arriving to the _Interceptor_ Will gathered some odd but after awhile also deeply fascinated gazes as the pirates caught a first actual glimpse of the mermaid the moment he stepped onto the deck with her. Will however needing not to do anything to keep those too curious and entranced away as she was swift to keep the sailors at bay with her frigid scowls, the men simply satisfying themselves from watching from afar as Will carried the mermaid over to the ship’s bow and settled her against the gunwale, however unable to look away as so bewitching of a sight she was until Gibbs arrived and ordered the men back to work. The mermaid clasping the jacket around herself more tightly, to have opted not to wear the other constraining piece of clothing that was completely alien to her, and Will had left it at that. As long as she at least had that coat to cover herself with, which was also part of the reason why the surrounding pirates had difficulties to concentrate to their work. Despite of that Will still nodding towards the shirt in her possession, raising his brows to her remarkably.

“You should really put that on. You’re attracting more attention than what is probably to your liking like that…wearing practically nothing.”

Will found himself then come close to actually blushing as upon talking he’d cast a significant look down at the mermaid’s body, not completely covered by the jacket that was barely long and baggy enough to hide her slender, distracting, bare frame that did stir rather notable unrest amongst the men in form of practically each and every one of the sailors stopping their doings time and time again to ogle at the alluring woman in Will’s presence…Like he’d noticed himself do at times.

“Take her below. She shouldn’t stay loitering about here”, Jack’s voice called out then, Will turning to welcome the arriving pirate with his wondering gaze as Jack walked over. Just after he’d crossed the deck after exiting the captain’s quarters to supervise the newly enlisted sailors at work, and cast some grim glances at the pirates obviously neglecting their given duties once again, then joining the blacksmith once the crew had resumed their tasks. Will now leveling a quizzical look at the pirate.

“I don’t think she’d feel very comfortable just cooped up somewhere”, Will said, in clear disagreement of the idea as he knew the mermaid to have been uneasy enough during her short stay at the inn…Undoubtedly even if not in chains or otherwise bound, still feeling like a prisoner in any place she would be put in if it wasn’t out in the open under the sun. Jack however not sharing his such notions.

“She’s in the way. She has no business being here once the storm overbears us, unless ye want her to be swept over”, Jack answered, his eyes shortly dropping to take in the mermaid until he turned, just slightly to direct his gaze to the horizon, and also Will then got a first profound look of the clouds that had emerged from behind the steadily distancing island. Gibbs to have ordered them to cast off not long after Will had come aboard, and the _Interceptor_ was already making great headway…regardless of the earlier disruptions in labor.

“The storm?”

“It’ll soon be upon us. We just need to make most of the wind and gain as much ground as we can before the gale takes the better of our chase…”

Jack now once more cast a remarkable look down at the mermaid, who surprisingly was also eyeing at him. Them exchanging a longer glance until Will took notice of their silent stare that ended in the mermaid angling her jaw and slitting her eyes fiercely, and he gained the pirate’s attention. Jack next locking gazes with him as beckoned to the creature in their close vicinity.

“Just sayin’. Yer little secret won’t remain as such if she’s out here once we’re swerving in the swells...and the men catch a real look of her.”

Knowing then instantly what Jack meant once Will saw the first thunderbolts to pierce the murky swarms of clouds that by then had fully spread above Tortuga, promising of heavy rains and those blustery waves that upon reaching them would put their vessel in very dire straits. As Will then paid heed to Jack’s words and bent over to help the mermaid to her feet him only hoping it to be still but a regular storm instead of an actual typhoon.

Will went below and headed towards the part of the ship he assumed the cargo hold to be, thinking that the mermaid would have more privacy there without a risk of the crew members wandering off during the raging of the tempest and would hence happen upon her while seeking refuge from the storm. Once reaching the hold Will scouring the space until found a more isolated spot, however during his intention of placing the mermaid onto one of he crates changing his mind once a loud assortment of several animals bleating and clucking in fear rang out in the silence. A handful of chickens and a pair of goats protesting, pulling against their tethers and rattling their cages anxiously once the mermaid got too close to them. Apparently sensing the predator that lurked under her human like appearance and in response Will did take note the way her eyes gleamed as she stared at the frightened animals, him however carrying her away from them and placing her on top of another crate notably farther in the hold.

“Stay here. I’ll come to check on you once the storm has passed.”

The mermaid tilted her head at that, studying Will until her mien was consumed by an emotion he could only decipher as disbelief until against the norm she looked honestly amused.

“I wouldn’t be so concerned of me…when it is you out there without the protection of that which I gifted you the last we met…my kiss of life.”

This now truly caused Will’s cheeks to flush and for a moment he could but stare back at the creature who was now eyeing at him what it seemed like not hatefully for the very first time. Entertained by his reaction her peering at him from under her lashes as a hint of real smile made an appearance on her lips then, until with a flash of faraway memory caused him to clear his throat once the jacket actually fell from her shoulders. To reveal the mermaid’s still very much unclothed upper torso, only her locks keeping him from getting the full view he was enough embarrassed to look upon even partly, and he now turned around once as before she didn’t even notice it, or didn’t care, as he then swiftly left the hold. Thinking that his very human, or perhaps ever so manly reaction perhaps to have amused her too much for her to keep in mind what he’d previously mentioned about attracting attention in her usual state that didn’t involve what his kind usually observed as the epitome of propriety, wearing clothing…This fact however then indeed causing Will to turn utterly mortified, over the simple matter of him realizing to have on several occasion bypassed propriety in favour of his good-will, resulting him gazing upon a nude woman and yet alone staying in a same room with one for a whole night…despite of her only looking like a real woman.


	6. Careless Quarry

Once the storm caught up with them, it was as bad as Jack had made it out to be.

The waves seemed to grow rougher by the hour, and by the time they'd been struggling to make their way in the intense tempest for only a few miles the gale had turned so ferocious that the fierce wind alone felt like capsizing the _Interceptor_ at any moment, if not the massive swells pummeling her hull from all sides. Repeatedly sweeping over the deck and pelting the vessel like it was nothing but a tiny piece of driftwood, consuming anything and anyone who wasn't careful enough to grab onto whatever they got their hands on whenever a new wave swooped in from across the gunwale…So it really amazed Will how Jack was able to hold their course, even the raging sea was doing its best to foul their any attempt of keeping up with the _Black Pearl_. Especially when they seemed to be led on by the pirate's intuition alone, as he'd overheard the crew talk about Jack's compass and how it in fact appeared to be utterly useless in finding a heading.

"How can we sail to an island that nobody can find…with a compass that doesn't work?" Will shouted, over the noise of the surging ocean, as he grabbed onto a cord that hold one of the staysails steady. Gasping once a huge lightning bolt spread across the murky sky, slicing through it, the majestic flash that ensued big enough to lighten up the soaked, white sails straining in the blustery gusts of wind. Will shaking his hair away from his face once yet another wave came crashing just beside the dipped edge of the ship and send a heavy splash of water to spill over the railing, toppling him and Gibbs over and the pair were instantly thrown off their feet before the first mate got his chance to answer. Hurriedly Will rising unsteadily once the ship made an unexpected dip to starboard, him grasping to Gibbs to stop the older man from falling on his backside once more and threw himself towards the slackened tack line. To tie it down, upon finding his sea legs again Gibbs swooping in to aid him. Smirking as he did it, casting him an amused look despite of the hellish tempest continuing to push them to their wit's end…and possibly taking them closer to their watery graves.

"Aye, the compass doesn't point north…but we're not trying to find north, are we?"

Will couldn't bring himself to actually find the man's reply all that amusing as he was robbed of a chance to answer himself, one more wave crashing upon them. Causing him to fall over again but this time he washed across the deck on his stomach until after a futile attempt to stand up he only managed to turn until with a low curse he crashed against the ship's side, now gripping to the thick coils of rope not to get whisked away by the following surge that collided with the ship from behind him. The way he himself along with everyone on deck were thrown around like rag dolls in constant danger of being swept overboard then causing him to spear a thought for the mermaid. Wondering was she experiencing the very same even while huddled in the safety of the brig, him then only hoping to survive this storm to see how she was faring down there.

Despite of his and the rest of the crew's ever growing skepticism Jack did manage to steer them clear of the heart of the storm, with the very help of the seemingly useless compass no less, and after a few hours of swerving in the rocky swells they finally made it out into more serene waters. Despite of the casualties of three to four sailors claimed by the ocean them escaping the tempest with little to no damages. Even to the ship which had been pushed to her ultimate limit by Jack's in fact somewhat reckless seafaring, but them braving the typhoon so outright with little fear of it had saved them a lot of time, and much thanks to the very storm they'd closed remarkable distance with the _Pearl_.

Once the surfs had notably quieted down and the ominous gales were finally behind them Will and the rest of the crew had been given leave and were able to retire for the night. Jack still manning the helm as with a strained sigh Will left the quarter-deck, after learning them to have not in fact been thrown off course by the storm and to be making swift headway him giving himself permission to rest, but first what he needed to confirm was that the mermaid had pulled through the previous hours…For it must've not been an easy sail even while held indoors, especially when one was so heavily injured like she was, trapped in an environment so strange to her.

Will gave his still notably damp clothes a sour glance-over as descended to the lower level, thinking that he probably should come up with something to tend to her dinner as snatched a lamp from the wall, making a quick stop to light it until went further below. Passing the crew's quarters and already asleep sailors on his way to the cargo hold, but once he got down what awaited him was the instant sight of something red covering the floor upon arrival, and only after a few steps he came to a baffled halt. Will blinking in confusion once he raised the lamp, to see more drops of red that he then identified as blood to smear the floorboards as the dominant dark gave room to the introduced light, and when he next spotted pieces of small fluff to cover the floor he resumed his steps…Begrudgingly so however once alarm started to set in.

Will had a bad feeling about venturing further as he now could feel the steely stench of blood hit his nose, and with a shocked realization Will now raised his gaze. His skin crawling as the lamp's light spread to reveal numerous splashes of more gore to stain the wood, until his eyes then fixated to the animals present within the hold, but which no longer were as many…What indeed remained of them now getting startled by his arrival, but what instead spooked him was in fact the mermaid whom he then found cowering on the floor…More than alright, hunched over the mutilated remains of a chicken she'd sprung from its cage and devoured, by the look of all the blood and the pieces of mangled bird in her grip finishing up her meal. What was left of the two other chickens she'd consumed splayed on the floor in front of her, tiny bones with revolting strips of torn flesh still attached to them, while alerted by his once more halted steps the mermaid's gaze now rose and she made eye-contact.

The raging of the storm had undoubtedly masked the panicked clucking of the birds and hence left everyone on deck clueless of the ongoing bloodshed, Will petrifying as he could've sworn to see a dark smile to grace the mermaid's bloody lips until she next licked them. Taking in his stupefied and givenly shaken reaction as straightened, plucking a batch of dappled feathers from the side of her mouth, while her full focus went to aghast Will shining light to her bloodied frame…Despite of the horrifying display Will thinking that perhaps what was the most terrifying of the whole affair was that in her galore hunger she seemed to have slaughtered those birds without any difficulty, despite of the mess of the kills that played as evidence to the previous butchery. And for his following surprise, Will then saw her stand. Even though her legs still remained weak and mauled her actually to have gained enough strength to stand on her own, in his dismay Will almost missing the somber words she then spoke.

"Still so bewitched that you find your earlier compassion wise?" she asked gauntly, her scathing voice causing Will to flinch as he returned her stare. Distinctly fazed once she made a point to revel in the dread that was her current demeanor, but after swallowing Will got over his initial shock and simply raised uneasy eyebrows once he turned his focus from the dead birds to the mermaid. However flinching for the second time once he took a step closer and heard the revolting crunching sound when a piece of chicken bone that stuck out of her mouth snapped in two as she bit into it, to strip the last of the remaining flesh off of it. Regardless of the pure monstrosity displayed in front of him in a way this solving the problem taking her with him had presented, which had been the fact of her feeding…For he couldn't have exactly given any of the crewmen for her to eat, and she needed…sustenance now more than ever to regain her strength. Despite of being a mythical creature him gathering her to be similar to humans at least in that aspect…But for how long those birds would be enough to keep her satisfied…Will sighed. Well in spite of Jack's efforts, he'd insisted upon this himself, so he surely wasn't the one with the right to complain…And had to face the consequences of his benevolence, which apparently, this creature was making the most of.

"You need to eat. Same as the rest of us", Will replied, his voice also rather gaunt as he walked closer to the mermaid after dropping his eyes modestly. To avoid gazing upon her once more bare form, swiftly pinpointing the shirt she'd left on the floor as she then answered.

"Is that what you first thought once you walked in and saw me?...Then why say so with such a quiver in your voice?" she spoke, as she could tell the young man to be in fact afraid no matter how much he was trying to hide it…Her smelling it off of him, sensing it.

"Do you want me to fear you?" Will asked, picking up the previously discarded shirt, as heard the crates to creak behind him once she apparently sat down once she in the end wobbled. Her legs not healed enough to keep her upright, her eyeing at him in amusement his assumed apathy brought out in her…For no matter how much of a brave face he made he didn't differ from those birds she'd just eaten…Feeling his life to be finally put at risk in her presence.

"Isn't that how it is? One should fear that which could harm them" , she said, an utterance leaving her lips that could've been interpreted as a chuckle, but Will couldn't tell. Him shaking off of the uncomfortable feeling once more creeping upon him as he still took a moment to turn as the fresh sight of the said gore caused him to hesitate. Him simply casting a significant glance to her way.

"I reckon now you this injured I could harm you more than you could me."

"Unless you continue to leave yourself open like this...for it would take even less for me to kill you now", the mermaid stated, peering at his back downright bestially this time, and Will couldn't honestly tell had that been an actual threat to sway him further…To warn him for continuing to dismiss her true nature in favor of his good will. But as previously stated by her and Jack, perhaps he indeed was just that stupid. To place faith in her perhaps non-existent similar sentiment instead of accepting her to be so drastically different from him not to actually be fazed by such emotion herself.

"I may not have taken any lives as you have…But aren't ignorant enough to claim humans not to be just as terrifying of a beings who kill to survive", Will mused, noticing from the corner of his eye the mermaid to tip her head at his remark, just slightly as shot an appraising look at the still somewhat rattled young blacksmith, who however by then had learned to conceal most of his unease. Her still wishing to test his resolve, flashing an another sinister smile as kept on eyeing at the young man upon replying.

"And yet I could wager your fellow humans not to shock you as much as tearing through a man like I did these animals…I saw the dread in your eyes just now."

Will couldn't help but have shivers run across his skin at the sound of that, but still he simply sighed and cast his eyes over to the overly battered chicken cadavers…In the end placing the shirt onto a nearby crate as began to scour the hold for something to put the bodies in, to begin to get rid of the evidence what had come to pass there before any of the crew members walked in to see it.

"Perhaps. But the real difference may as well be that you lack of simple table manners", Will replied, gesturing to the blood on the floor and which also tainted the mermaid, not to mention the state of the birds which didn't indicate any of the required etiquette frequented by humans during meals…To which exact proceedings he himself wasn't fully conscious of, although he did agree none of the esteemed gentry to quench their hunger quite so brutally.

During his short search Will managed to find a collection of sacks from the front of the cargo hold, quickly emptying the contents from one of them until hurried back, to stuff the dead chickens within the sack while the mermaid continued to watch his movements. Her sharp eyes never leaving him and in time turning him back to uncomfortable, while he was collecting the bones and the rest of the gory remains from the floor him not straying to face the creature, a fact which then conjured up a quite humorous remark from her in fact as he clearly continued not to look at her...However due to mostly other reasons from what she was assuming.

"It is alright to fear me…It would be unusual for you not to."

"Then I suppose I'm an unusual man", Will stated, despite of that having to force himself from not getting overly repulsed by the blood that currently covered his hands before he tried to wipe them to the side of the sack as he finished. "…for I choose not to."

The mermaid's eyes narrowed. "Why would you?"

"Because I know that should you wish to tear me open, you would've done it by now…And it would've been me laying here my insides out instead of those chickens. And the fact that you could've taken my life on more than one occasion only proves that I'm not a complete fool to think so."

Regardless of his carefree tone Will couldn't help but twitch at his words, but just as he was about to turn to face her he was startled once he realized her to have suddenly moved closer to him, leaning from across the pair of crates separating them to get a better look at him and stared at him square in the eye, without blinking or much as moving. Her mien so blank that Will couldn't tell should he have been intimidated or captivated, as in the warm, yellow light of the lamp her eyes suddenly gained an enchanting hue of green unlike he'd so far seen once she finally tilted her head again in a bird like manner, but without lapsing to their spell he then simply watched her study him. Following her irises to drift from his own down to his nose and to his lips, taking in his every feature, and the longer her gaze remained focused on him he couldn't help but blink. Eventually blushing once she inched suddenly closer and caused him to recall the kiss they'd shared in the past…The kiss which if not anything significant back at the time and given out of an indeterminated whim of this sea creature only, had still been his first one…Her _gift_ to him as she'd called it. Him to have never kissed anyone since, not really…And he couldn't understand what she had meant by referring to such an notable endearment as a gift.

"I…I need to clean this up before anyone comes down here", Will informed her, more awkwardly than was his intention, but he couldn't deny to have been once more shaken by the combination of the mortifying memory and the ever so lacking awareness of personal boundaries of the mermaid, as she'd come surprisingly close to him on her own, even so far she'd recoiled at his every attempt of approaching her. So after ending up transfixed by his not so common connection to her once again and not getting jumped by the creature in the process, now aware of his own discomfort Will shot to his feet. To avert the mermaid's strong, undeniably magnetic gaze that right then had seemed like peering to the very core of him. Him snatching the shirt from where he'd left it and quickly threw it next to her, beckoning to it before shuffled around and headed for he exit. Raising the sack as gave it a chagrined look once he noticed the blood to have already soaked through the coarse fabric...All the while painfully aware how fast his heart had suddenly begun to race, even without him noticing until he had pried his eyes away from the alluring creature currently staring at him.

"Put that on. I know you hate it, but no one else can see you like that…I'll go get some water to clean up this mess."

* * *

After throwing the chicken carcasses to the ocean and fetching a couple of buckets of seawater Will had instantly hurried back down to the cargo hold to wash the blood splatters from the floor. Even surprising himself how swiftly and well he managed to scrub away the traces of any animals to have been killed there, despite of the amount of gore that he'd had hard time believing to originate to those small birds…Him only hoping the smell would go away on its own before any members of Jack's crew would catch a whiff of it, but now most of the visual signs of the carnage removed only thing left had been the mermaid herself. Will to have reserved half of the second bucket for her and told her to use it to wipe the rest of the blood away from her person, and even though she clearly didn't understand why and least didn't see a reason for her to do as he requested of her, in the end she surprisingly did so. Giving the young man more reason for embarrassment once she removed, or more like tore off, the shirt she'd surprisingly put on also due to his earlier request, and before Will could do what was proper had taken the linen he'd offered her and dunked it into the bucket…For obviously she wouldn't have let him do it, nor would've Will been able to do it, as he was already mortified enough over her nudity and with heated cheeks he swiftly twirled around and sat down. Despite of instantly feeling himself way more vulnerable than he would've allowed him still rather sitting his back turned to her than shamelessly facing her while she was lounging there in her birthday suit. The mermaid starting to wipe away the blood off of her skin in silence, shared by Will who then only sat there quietly. Waiting for her to finish, until his meandering ponders reeled back to the events that had brought them together after all these years…Ill-fatedly for both her and him or not.

"You…were famished, weren't you?" Will asked, the mermaid briefly meeting his eyes as he stole a glance at her over his shoulder modestly until faced the wall in front of him again. Leaving her to cast hers to the opposing side of the hold in another silence that was instantly filled with the constant creaking of the vessel, her however not needing to spell it out how starving she must've been for settling on those chickens to satiate at least a portion of her hunger. Will continuing as she after all didn't say anything, her simply listening to the familiar, comforting sound of the now calm waves lapping against the ship's hull. "How long has it been since you last got something you eat?"

"I was caught in middle of a hunt…That was fifteen days ago", the mermaid did answer after a while, halting in her act of cleaning her features from the stray droplets and splatters as for a brief moment her expression darkened, but Will could also pick up subtle hints of fear and sorrow from her otherwise dull tone as she undoubtedly recalled the terrifying moment of ending up snared by those mermaid hunters. Him then thinking back to the night at the inn when she'd attacked him, now having a better understanding why.

"No wonder you jumped at me", he said, mostly to himself however, but he did gain the mermaid's attention. Her turning to look at him as he spoke up again, the previous amused tint disappearing from his voice. "Is that why those men managed to capture you?"

"I was weak. I had survived on mere fish alone for a very long time and was too feeble to escape the traps they lured us into", she told him, taking Will aback, even he perhaps shouldn't have been really surprised by what she'd just said.

"Don't you…then eat fish?"

"They keep us alive…but not as strong."

"As human flesh would."

At this point the mermaid cast a sharp look at Will, of acknowledgement, although didn't comment on his remark. For he already knew how laughably dreary this whole affair and conversation were without her needing to verify his words as truth. His ghost of a smile vanishing as he then spared a minute to seriously ponder upon the situation he'd found himself in, only a couple of days ago thinking saving Elizabeth to be the most prominent thing for him…

"That is why you fed me your blood. To cure me", the mermaid fathomed, conjuring up a gloomy laugh from Will who did then turn serious again. Despite of his composed mien his heart lurching once he came to think the way she'd been back at that room he'd brought her to, how sure he had been for her to not make it…How he'd prayed for her to make it.

"You were in very bad shape…I figured that since you bit me to have some of it I might as well give you more to get some of your strength back", Will answered. Awkwardly what else as it then truly hit him how utterly bizarre it was to discuss about something like this with a mythical creature who was nothing short of terrifying…One whom he however couldn't bring himself to be scared enough to refrain from engaging into such discourse with. For if he was completely honest on many occasion he had hoped to find himself in her presence, to see her and be able to talk to her…To satisfy his curiosity surrounding their past encounter.

"Then wouldn't it have been better for you to offer me an arm instead of a mere cupful of your blood? Perhaps my wounds would've already healed", the mermaid countered. Her voice as somber and callous as ever, but still Will didn't find her words any more threatening from before. Him now actually making a genuine smile as cast a fleeting look at her.

"I doubt it would've made any greater of a difference than you consuming those chickens did."

There was a long pause then as the mermaid didn't reply. Her simply continuing to wipe away the blood from her skin quietly as now there hadn't been any purpose for Will to elaborate his words, for it was true that aside for her hunger she had eaten those birds to get stronger. To aid her injuries to heal faster which could be achieved only by her consuming living tissue of another living being, fish or other creatures found in the ocean doing their job in keeping her well fed, but not offering enough nutrients to contribute for her quick recovery…Hence as this human had proved himself quite perceptive in that aspect despite of her earlier tries to intimidate him the mermaid then ignoring him as finished wiping away the blood off of herself. As minutes went by unbeknownst to the young man also her starting to regard his presence and mere interest in her rather peculiar, but although she was more terrified of him than trusting of him, she couldn't either deny not to be affected by the memory she had of him…Which made her far more interested in him than she should've been, for technically this man didn't differ from those hunters who'd captured and tortured her…But despite of her hatred of humans, her dread and evident distrust of Will, she still couldn't help but be curious. For he was an unusual one.

"Why didn't you just leave me?" she questioned. Out of the blue, and even they had already gone over the topic when she'd last asked him about his reasons of helping her instead of killing or fearing her, she still was as confused about this man's intentions as she'd been before. It not sitting right with her to think a human she'd always regarded not only as a weak prey but also as an equally fearsome predator to actually care for her, had she saved his life in the past or not.

Despite of to have been asked that before Will was taken by a surprise by her question, but after a moment he simply sighed at her visibly confused tone. Him straightening his back and his expression turned sincere as she once more examined him, this time notably baffled as unlike ever before her face was riddled with dismay. Honest disbelief, and once he stole another glance at her it reminded Will of the fact that as much as she'd tried to make his earlier shock about him fearing her, deep down and under the menacing front she put up, she was as scared of him as she was humans in general…Which was why her following words that bordered back to mordant stroke a more defining chord in him.

"As your captain said, your survival instinct is rather poor when it comes to you risking it for the sake of succumbing to a mere infatuation. You should've left me and ridden yourself of the burden of caring for a creature most unworthy of your indulgence…and who could use it against you", she mused. Rather knowingly, although Will could tell her to still try to figure him out. Appraising him where he only returned her gaze earnestly, averting her eyes only briefly once her endless stare became too much for him to bear. Her charm drawing him in too much for him to think of a comprehensible response.

"I couldn't just leave you down there as shark bait…Although even in that state I figure you could've fended for your own against one. For awhile", he said, and he could swear that she seemed somewhat smug even as she mulled over his previous notion, until her eyes narrowed in a familiar vexed manner…As if she would've taken offense of his supposed lack of belief in her ability to fend for herself against other sea creatures in the end. Will however then only smiling in passing amusement.

"Besides, can you blame me? You were put on this earth to lure men like me with your beauty, so even if I had helped you simply due to such infatuation, I wouldn't actually be at fault for being such a fool with no sense of self-preservation, now would I?"

"No. You would simply be as helpless as the rest of them."

That caused Will to turn back to serious. Him thinking over her taut reply until he let out a new sigh, once more him trying to convey his sincerity through his indeed frank words, although he pretty much already knew her not to respond to it.

"You are beautiful…But there's more to my desire to help you than mere attraction."

"And the woman you've sacrificed your freedom and precious integrity for? Is there more to your desire to save her than mere attraction?" the mermaid queried, stupefying Will for a moment it took for him to reply, until he cast a taken aback look at her. Him to have not even noticed to have turned around to face her, the fact that she actually knew about Elizabeth dumbfounding him as he now locked at first baffled and then earnest gazes with her, but even though he couldn't understand how on earth could she know about Elizabeth when he hadn't mentioned her even once, he still didn't get hung up on that and considered the mermaid's newest question. In the end not really having a real answer, but replied nonetheless…Even his following words came from his very heart him still not exactly making sense even to himself as he said them.

"I suppose not. But the difference between me helping you and her is that I did it out of sense of obligation…Not mere will."

After a brief exchange of stares Will was now once more reminded of the fact of the mermaid sitting across from him utterly nude, and with an uneasy clear of his throat he turned away. Earning then a honestly nonplussed look from the mermaid herself who once more came to find his reaction to her nakedness but confounding…As much as she did find the way he and the rest of the humans seemed to spend their every waking hour walking on dry land on two feet while fully shrouded in those confining pieces of clothing equally puzzling.

"I distract you", she discovered.

"Like that, yes", Will agreed, although he knew to be lying just a bit…For it wasn't her nudity alone that at times managed to cause all the while greater stir within him…

"So I was right. You do fear me."

Will said nothing to that. Although he realized her to be wrong in assuming his words as evidence to his fear of her and not to his obvious fascination to her as a sailor's myth brought to life and the very mermaid he owed his life to, him still not bypassing the fact that in some part of him he was more than aware of her true nature, which was bound to intimidate him…But only to that extend as to keep him now from sitting too close to her, him to have maintained a distance to her throughout their whole discussion, and not only due to caution, but due to respect to her own boundaries…Even it wouldn't have indeed been a lie to say that he didn't feel all the while more tempted to get closer to her the longer he stayed there talking to her, even this was practically the first time he ever had gotten to speak with her properly…But that very fact was the very thing that then came to frighten him as he thought over the mermaid's previously spoken words.

"Well I suppose you were…For no matter how much I feel devoted to help you and find you familiar due to the memories I have of you…I did watch you kill those people at the butcher shop. And know not to be any less prone to such fate, as just like you said…to you I'm just a careless quarry foolish enough to imperil myself."

Will did turn halfway around then. Not to meet with the grim eyes of the mermaid, but to gaze down at her upward turned palm onto which the image of the golden medallion of his father's had been seared, and after picking up his equally serious stare she closed her fist and shifted away from his direct view after his eyes had risen to look into hers in the end. Right then Will to have let her get a glimpse of his inner dread of her being which he'd indeed laid witness to back at that auction when she'd been freed and used her claws and fangs to defend herself, but as had been already established, whatever Will had experienced with her after that moment didn't lessen his compassion…Or attraction. For even he didn't harbor any similar feelings for her as he did for Elizabeth, she still was way more significant to him…For if it weren't for her and her at the time shown compassion, pity, or whatever it had been that had driven this creature to spare him, he wouldn't be here today to acknowledge it or the tie he realized to exist between them because of it. So upon thinking this Will then rose from his seat, heavily fatigued by the events of the past days and tiredly nodded down to the shirt that once more laid unused on the crate between them. Muffling a yawn.

"Please wear that while I'm away. I try to find you some better clothes and a place to rest till I get back."

The mermaid watched him then to walk away. Leaving behind the lamp as picked up the buckets before continued his way to the upper level now in complete darkness, as she followed him ascend the steps not knowing what to make of him…For this one was truly a peculiar human out of all she'd come in contact with in her life. His many a times expressed indifference strange to her, as she was familiar with close to nothing but the skittish side of humans that usually showed nothing but dread for her and her kind as any common prey would at the moment of their death…But even after getting faced with the said possible fate of meeting a similar, terrifying end this man still insisted on not changing his mind about helping her…And then again, she had never gotten this close to a human before, nor had had an actual exchange with one. Her usual run-ins with his ilk consisting only the times she'd left the sea to hunt…and this particular time which wasn't like any of those other times she'd previously been allowed to leave her pod in search of food.


	7. Tall tales Vs Old Wive's Tales

_**A/N: Bonding time!** _

* * *

Will took uncertain steps. The murkiness of the hold making it difficult to see, the utter silence soon growing unnerving as he ventured further into the belly of the ship. As he meandered between the crates and barrels him however not seeming to reach his destination no matter how long he walked, after a while everything he came across looking the same as he nonetheless determinedly continued his search. In the end his endless wandering belowdecks resulting in him starting to turn confused, for he didn't come across anyone or anything, simply keeping on aimlessly circling the never ending hold…Not finding her either.

"Elizabeth?"

No answer. Will frowning as despite of his call he didn't hear anyone to reply, nor anything for that matter. Only the defining creaking of the ship that continued to careen slightly under him, him rounding another assorted pile of crates until repeated himself. Calling out to the young woman again, knowing her to be somewhere down there.

"Elizabeth?"

Will sighed, addled as once more didn't gain a response. Only the silence greeting him as he finally came to a stop, looking about in the dark in wonder. Like before not finding the space any more familiar or different, him sparing a passing thought to the impressive size of the _Interceptor_ which he hadn't come to perceive until now when he was making his way through its hull. Him to have been walking what it seemed like ages and still not reaching the prow, as that's where he was pretty certain to be heading, even if everything else muddled together. But what most bewildered him was the lacking presence of Elizabeth, or the fact that there was not a single sign of her…Why couldn't he find her?

Will gave his surroundings one more profound look-over until set forth, continuing his frustrating course across the space that closely resembled the hold, but was brought to an immediate halt as after an eternity of utter silence he suddenly heard something. Muffled sounds, of people, coming from somewhere near. Will perking up his hearing at the instant thought of Elizabeth, his feet soon starting to bring him closer to the source of the noise, until after a few steps he came to realize the sound not to originate to a single person but indeed two…And Elizabeth definitely wasn't one of them.

With an addled frown Will tried to identify the somewhat familiar and yet strange noises that now echoed within the space the closer he got until he finally saw movement. Hastening his pace, but was brought into a new, dismayed halt as it dawned on him what was it that he was actually hearing as he suddenly found himself spying on a couple of figures that were sitting on the floor. At first shrouded by the dimness of the space and the crates they'd hid themselves behind until Will arrived and stopped but a couple of meters away from them, quickly identifying them as an embracing pair of a man and a woman. Engaged in a zealous exchange of affection, huddled together, tightly nestled against one another as they remained interlocked by their ardent kiss. Will's eyes widening as he stared at them, flushing throughout as he briefly cast his eyes down to the sailor who was sitting his back turned to him, getting kissed by what Will next observed to be a seemingly nude woman until he then followed a white hand to creep over the pirate's shoulder. A clawed hand that settled at the back of the man's head, clenching in fervor, as mortified Will tried to tear his eyes away from the display in front of him and took a step back. Knowing he shouldn't have been there, but his presence was instantly picked up by the woman who even in the darkness Will could see to snap her eyes open as the sailor bend his head back upon breaking free of her sultry peck. Giving room for her to peer over to where Will stood and indeed her gaze immediately found him, enabling the young man to discover this mystery woman to be the mermaid.

All thoughts vacated him as Will returned the mermaid's stare, unable to avert his eyes, even her gaze felt unbearable now as he watched her to continue to run her hands over the man who apparently at some point of his absence had come upon her. An uneasy breath escaping the young blacksmith as he after all couldn't stop himself from looking, unable to leave, nonplussed as to why she was doing this as he simply behold how the mermaid now rose to sit on top of the man. Her other arm snaking from under his own arm before coiling around his torso where her lips slid down his face, to distract him, her never breaking eye-contact with Will until his heart then lurched once he watched her to straighten. Bending her own head back, dangerous, sudden bestial glow emerging in her eyes as she smiled evily before for Will's horror she revealed her fangs. Before Will could say anything to warn the blissfully unaware sailor the mermaid wrapping her fingers around the man's neck, plunging her teeth into his face, tearing the side of his mouth open.

Will jolted upright. Panting, as the frightening image of the mermaid shredding off a slab of the sailor's flesh was pushed back into his consciousness once with a racing heart he came to grasp the difference between a dream and reality as he glanced to his sides. Realizing to be alone, not a sign of either the mermaid or the pirate she'd viciously preyed upon in sight, a relieved sigh leaving him as he relaxed. In the safety of his cabin Will closing his eyes as reveled in the soothing notion of it all to have been a mere dream, although he couldn't shake off the feeling of dread that still lingered for quite some time. Will evening his breathing with a couple of exhales as pushed the stray strands of unkempt hair out of his face, briefly mulling over the recollections of the in the end turned nightmare until stopped himself, rubbing his eyes. Chasing away the pulsing fear that had once more sparked into being…It had just been a dream.

Will experienced a brief sense of embarrassment as the other equally unsettling aspect of the dream now surfaced in his mind, him not helping but reminiscing the far more pleasant part that had preceded the dream's eventual shift into horror. Indeed the odd tingling sensation that the images aroused pushing back the previous trepidation, dialing it down, until with a sudden rush of bodily heat he shook his head. Making an abashed frown. No. No, he shouldn't be…thinking about that either.

With a tired sigh Will rose from his bunk, glancing outside from the tiny port side window that gave in the only light in his small cabin that signaled of early morning, the crew possibly to have not awoken yet. Will to have knowingly claimed himself one of the spare cabins reserved for the marines even without Jack's consent, for Will hadn't found it comfortable to share sleeping quarters with the rest of the crewmen who had been left without a cabin of their own…crew members who were pirates no less. For if it weren't for the sake of Elizabeth, he never would've involved himself with the likes of them. Indeed putting up with Jack and his dubious cluster of cutthroats under mere duress, although the men enlisted into Jack's crew didn't exactly strike like the worst kind of knaves found sailing these waters…The likes of men Commodore Norrington made his living of hunting down.

Even Will was once more reminded of the problems that would arise from his act of breaking Jack out of prison from right under the very Navy Officer's nose, he still only put such ponders aside. Having more pressing matters to worry about, one of which was the mermaid…For even if she'd had something to eat last night, the time she'd spent starving to have still been so long that Will figured those three chickens to have not done much to quench her hunger…So he had to come up with something to feed her…Or perhaps some poor soul _would_ end up devoured by her.

Just as Will was about to exit the cabin he stopped at the door, his feet halting once a flash of memory of his dream was instantly triggered when he thought about the mermaid, and the terrifying recollection of the sailor getting his face torn open naturally caused him to think about last night. About the mangled birds he'd discovered from the cargo hold and the blood covered creature responsible of slaughtering them, the recollection now indeed chilling him to the bone as he came to think that same most likely to happen to him when he least expected it…His self-preservation finally doing its job of warning him, causing him to pause and think on his actions, to consider whether it was in fact sensible for him to push on…As Jack had many times over pointed out continue to put himself and others at risk when now even his dreams were cautioning him from becoming too trusting with his so far shown carelessness…Simply because he wished to believe in the goodness of the mermaid in favor of her beast like nature that even all the tales gave evidence to be the more dominant one.

But despite of his once more arisen doubts Will was then quick to ignore them however, opening the door and slipped out to the corridor. Listening a moment, and upon failing to hear anything but the usual sound of grating wood he went down to the lower level, scouring the space until luckily discovered a set of fishing equipment. Once he made sure no one to be indeed awake other than Cotton who'd spent the rest of the night at the helm Will sneaking to the bow with his tools and a new pair of buckets in tow. Spending the following three hours fishing for some breakfast for the mermaid until the rest of the crew were finally woken up by the First Mate.

* * *

The mermaid gasped as she picked up the sound of steps coming from the stairs as Will jogged down to the hold, to have managed to slip past the awoken pirates unnoticed, and now ambled past the cargo over to the trepid creature. As always her sharp eyes taking in his every move, although she seemed considerably more at ease with his current visit as Will approached, leaving the extra bucket on the floor until placed the fishes he'd managed to catch in front of her. His own quarry considerably smaller than he'd hoped, him to have intended to bring at least a bucketful for her, the fishes barely filling it halfway. But he shouldn't have expected anything less since they were in middle of the vast ocean after all, and he couldn't go exactly diving into the deeper waters in she most likely lurked to catch her own prey.

"That's all I could get. I wish it was more", Will said, giving the a few fishes too little a regretful glance until smiled at the mermaid apologetically. Her staring back at him silently until cast her eyes down to the fishes, clearly not pleased, but since she hadn't quite expected the lad to drag in any of those men currently scurrying about above she eventually bent over the served fishes. Her fingers circling around the bucket as she craned her neck to take a couple of hungry bites until drew one of the fishes out, Will watching in unease but still in equal interest once as a testament to her still terrible hunger she quickly tore through the fish and laid waste to it. Will following her uncontrollable munching on her meal for a brief instant more until unwound the folds of fabric he'd pushed under his belt, placing the brand new shirt and breeches he'd discovered from his cabin onto the crate that laid between him and the feasting mermaid, until dropped down to sit onto the same one he'd occupied the previous night. Casting one more look towards the creature who against the norm was now fully ignoring him, giving Will an opportunity to once more marvel over the fact how she looked exactly like him, a regular human, but as indicated definitely was not from the way she was wolfing down those fishes…Without a single regard to the way she appeared to him, gobbling her food down carnivorously with bare hands, as was expected of a being like her that reminded of his kind only in appearance…Which then in fact somewhat amused Will, him making a small smile to himself until assumed an earnest expression. Still failing in thinking that the mermaid hadn't taken notice of his previous monitoring of her that seemed to entertain him so.

"I found them from by cabin. They are big for you, but better than nothing", Will said. Nodding down to the pile of folded clothing, until met the mermaid's gaze as she paused to give them a fretful look. Only amusing the young man further, but once more Will kept it to himself as continued. "And whenever you feel like it, I can take you to my cabin. You'd be more at peace there, more comfortable…Safe."

As the mermaid returned his gaze Will gasped, the way she now stared at him again quietly reminding him of her in his dream, but even though he knew it to have been just that his heart seemed to disagree. The mermaid picking up the quickened throbbing of his pulse as he briefly re-lived the moment of her sinking her teeth into that sailor, leveling an incredulous look at the young man.

"You'd dare to share a room with me?"

"I'll just find myself another place to sleep."

The mermaid examined Will in another silence. Will however soon getting alerted by a scraping sound, and as he looked down he noticed the bucket to enter his field of vision, the mermaid to have pushed it over to him. Will raising his eyebrows at the remaining three fishes quizzically until shifted his eyes back to creature, seeing her to cast a look at him that he assumed to consist of wonder.

"Aren't you hungry?"

"I…Not really", Will declined, blinking in astonishment until shook his head briskly at the mermaid's allusion. Looking at the uncooked fishes once more in demur until gave them back to the mermaid, despite of her surprising offer not quite intending to indulge in raw fish. "They're for you."

Without a word more the mermaid ate the rest of the fish, only briefly considering why would this human refuse a perfectly good meal, especially when she was willing to spare hers. In the end not caring much, for her hunger was still far from satiated so she rather finished it all by herself without sharing some scraps in favour of this human, who despite of not being one of the vilest of their kind was still a human.

Will raised his eyebrows again as he watched the mermaid to yank out the final fish's spine along with the last bit of its flesh, and when the mermaid saw him eye at her bloodied exterior once more she dropped the remains of the eaten fish to the floor and removed the shirt she had actually put on at some point. This time not quite so taken aback Will politely looking away from her in time as she proceeded to wipe the splatters off of herself with it, only to be interrupted soon after as Will grasped the spare shirt and offered it to her.

"Wear this."

"Why wear anything if these things only get sullied and torn all the while?" she remarked, indeed not grasping the concept of putting on such ridiculous, redundant articles, and her aversion was clear in her dismissive delivery, but for Will's surprise she humoured the young man nonetheless. Slipping into the roomy shirt that could've been worn by two people, so slender she was that the shirt came close falling down from her shoulders had not Will stolen a peek at her and rushed to catch the sleeve of it before he was once again shown something he shouldn't have been looking. Will composing himself as he tightened the laces of her collar once the mermaid didn't find his abrupt proximity as a threat, once done retreating back to his own seat.

"I'm afraid the world I live in isn't quite that…indifferent", he responded, earning a sideways glance from the mermaid.

"Then your kind is not only feeble but frivolous."

Will smirked at the mermaid's nettled retort, in fact at moments like this his interaction with her appearing far more normal than it probably should've…That he was actually having a conversation with a person rather than a mythical being with a knack for apparent snarky, venomous comments.

"If you'd like…I could take you above deck", Will offered then. Giving a moment for the mermaid to answer, but as the silence continued undisrupted he faced her. Studying her, to have figured her to wish to see the sun, to feel the breeze, to least see the sea to feel less confined. But despite of his assumptions once he stood and approached her again, to give her his hand to raise her from the floor, she moved away. At the sound of his proposition suddenly far more conscious of his close vicinity than she'd been just a moment ago and Will didn't insist upon it, despite of feeling contrite for having to keep her down here letting it go. Seeing that she clearly didn't feel comfortable with the idea of being surrounded by the crew just yet, and could he blame her? She'd only been around humans for a total of two days…If one didn't take her captivity into account, which he'd once more forgotten about. For she wasn't a human, and her stay aboard this ship must've been far harder for her than he could imagine. Hence it being a miracle that she'd been even this much at tease in his company.

"I'll take you outside when you're ready", Will promised. Raising a soothing hand as backed up from the mermaid who dropped her guard once more significantly the moment he increased the distance between them. Going back to stand next to the crate he'd been sitting on until gave her a small smile, her eyes only briefly rising to lock gazes with him until her attention was fully directed to the nearby wall. Whatever improvement he had imagined to have occurred her seeming to have reverted back to that equally cautious and wary she'd been the previous day, which was why he then decided to leave her on her own, for he figured her not to allow him to take him to his cabin either. Picking up the buckets as he went along Will once more exiting the hold, quite frankly coming to wonder then whatever was to come of this strangest of scenarios he'd wound up in.

* * *

Days passed in similar manner from that on. Will spending his time working as part of the crew as they continued their chase after the _Black Pearl_ , while all the while secretly taking care of the mermaid, as much as she let him that is. His help mostly consisting of him waking up early to capture more fish for her to eat, as she didn't seem to grow any more trusting with him despite of his efforts to make her involuntary stay aboard a human populated vessel less unpleasant. For this reason him to have not managed to check upon her injuries, nor had he been able to ask the questions that he'd been harbouring pretty much from the beginning of their journey, as regardless of her guarded behaviour that made it already difficult for him to try to get closer to her enough to make them, he found it otherwise challenging to speak to her. Not quite knowing what to say during those times he'd gone down to keep her company, especially when she still appeared more suspicious than comfortable around him. Her such withdrawn attitude shutting down any of his intentions to find out more about the circumstances that had led to her having to suffer the vicinity of humans, it to have taken a week before she'd even given her eventual consent to take her to the main deck.

Will carried the pallid looking mermaid across the ship, naturally gathering all the attention in an instant as he passed the labouring crewmen whose undivided focus was inescapably drawn to them. The creature however taking the stares she gained notably better from last time, which signaled that perhaps Will had been wrong in thinking her to have not learned to tolerate the presence of humans enough to be less leery, although she still didn't clearly prefer to be out in the open like this when she was still unable to walk on her own feet. As Will headed towards the staircase leading up to the quarterdeck him taking a look of the wounds on her legs that were visible even under the breeches she'd agreed to wear, and despite of him not to have been able to give the little treatment he knew how to do since that faraway night in Tortuga, he took notice of them to have healed quite nicely by themselves. However it taking some time before she'd be able to move without having to rely on his help….Before she could return to the sea. For she could barely stand by herself, yet alone walk.

The mermaid's frustration over the prolonged stay belowdecks had clearly grown over the course of past couple of days, and upon laying witness to her increased anxiety and unrest Will had been adamant to coax her into agreeing to let him take her outside. And fortunately she had, and the moment they'd emerged from below her eyes had immediately sought out the glimmering ocean after she'd been done casting sharp glances about the deck at the ogling pirates, visible tranquility taking over her. As Will stole a peek at her mien he saw how the dourness of her features was actually mellowed by some appeasing expression…Look of longing perhaps as she stared far out to the vast sea, from which she was however still so far away from, and being able but to imagine the depth of her aching desire to crawl over the gunwale in order to dive straight into those blue waves Will sighed. Purposefully placing her to sit onto the steps, so that she was able to see the ocean as long as she'd feel comfortable staying there, while he delved into work…Which after all had been one of the conditions in his agreement to sail under Jack's commandment, was he a pirate or not. For he would do it, as long as it served his own purpose…For as was only wise, he didn't trust the man.

"Gibbs", Will called out suddenly. After a few hours of working his curiosity that he'd held at bay for days now growing too great for him to curb any further as he happened to recall the things Jack and his First Mate had told him when he'd first seen the notice of the auction. Realizing that even if he'd been so far unable to acquire the answers from the mermaid, perhaps he could learn something from this apparently overly superstitious man who seemed to know a thing or two about such sailors' myths…And most of all mermaids Will reckoned. Him gesturing for the First Mate to come over as paused his task at hand to gain a moment with the elderly pirate, the man joining him by the rail.

"Aye, lad?"

"What else do you know of…mermaids?" Will asked, somewhat tentatively, as no matter how he would've phrased his offbeat inquiry it wouldn't have sounded any less out of place than it did...Which was why Gibbs looked at him rather oddly, for he had expected him to once more ask about their journey or how far out the _Black Pearl_ or Isla de Muerta still was to their current location.

"Besides what I already told ye? Why do ye wish to know more, lad?" Gibbs countered. Frowning contemplatively, perhaps a tad suspicious as any extremely careful man would be upon asked such strange things out of the blue, whereas Will tried to appear casual. As if he had no particular reason for asking, definitely not wanting him to make the connection between his inquiries and the second and most sketchily sheltered woman allowed aboard, despite of the First Mate's opposition to let Anamaria alone on board as part of the crew.

"Just curious", Will told him, tipping a wondering head as folded his arms across his chest, looking over the starboard gunwale himself. To appear even more laid-back as Gibbs considered his reply, a few others overhearing their exchange and like Will stopped their doings to further hear the elderly man's reply. Also interested and ever eager to take part in some tall tales.

"What's the matter lad? Aren't the wenches at port exciting enough for ye?" one pirate cackled after mulling over Will's question as passed by. After he went on his way Gibbs shifting his attention back to Will, the same inquiry in his eyes.

"No I…think I saw one…once", Will admitted, now several pirates halting as they turned their sights on the young man some in dismay, some in mere surprise, until one of them impugned his words. As Will turned around after casting a tell-taling glance to the mermaid's direction discovering the individual to be the short, bald man, whom everyone called Marty.

"And ye lived?"

Will averted his gaze, casting it down to the deck as tried to appear nonchalant. "I'm not sure...It was a long time ago."

"Either way that was either dumb luck or the highest blessing", another buccaneer remarked. Beckoning to Will's face before cleared his throat, spitting onto the deck at Marty's feet. "For strapping fellows like ye are the first they prefer to prey upon."

"So what exactly do ye wish to know about 'em?" Gibbs inquired. Trying a different approach as both him and Will bypassed the pirate's resolute comment while Will shrugged slightly. Having his reasons like any man harboring one such creature belowdecks would, even if it differed from the ones these men were imagining. Therefore him gladly playing along with such perceptions if it helped to keep them in the dark, Gibbs now thinking a moment as assessed him. Indeed wondering why exactly he was this curious although he and his captain had already told him plenty back in Tortuga, but let it go. Being a storyteller in essence him rather enjoying having someone to lend an ear to him whenever he was relaying a tale of his own or any other tavern yarn popular amongst the sailors of the island, making a sideways smile as Will answered, also Gibbs leaning against the gunwale.

"Anything you do know about them."

"Mermaids…Sea Ghouls or Devil Fish as they are called by many thanks to their fearsome appetite, are shy creatures. Despite of their ghastly constitution that strikes fear to any man's heart they are said to often times steer clear of humans and come to the surface only either to feed…or to breed", Gibbs told his listeners after a small ominous pause in the conversation, his gaze rounding the faces of the crewmen standing in front of him in a half circle that soon was joined by a few others, until his eyes lastly latched onto Will. The last bit, as ordinary as that sounded, however still taking the young man aback. One of the listening pirates continuing, in turn locking gazes with surprised Will, who also had hard time considering mermaids quite as shy when he thought back to his own interactions with the one he'd rescued.

"They find some hapless chap for the job and then…well. Either way, at least they experience something delightful before the foul end."

New shivers ran down Will's spine as a handful of pirates within earshot actually chuckled at the previous remark, as bleak as it was. For it definitely hadn't now escaped him what the other buccaneer had actually implied, and it hardly was as surprising as it had at first appeared to Will, until he then made a thoughtful expression. What both the pirate and Gibbs had said causing him to wonder.

"They need us to breed?" he asked. In disbelief, Gibbs quirking his bushy eyebrows, where a handful of the miscreants exchanged doubtful glances. Not believing it.

"Old wive's tales, nothing more", one stated. The most skeptical out of all, Gibbs smirking at his incredulous tone as tapped the side of his nose, his mien rather enigmatic as he prepared to speak, only to be cut off by one of the other pirates who also loved to spread fables. Was there actual truth to them or not.

"Who knows…But the tales do tell of blokes who've been ill-fatedly charmed by 'em beauties and used for that mere purpose before ending up eaten", he replied, despite of the First Mate's peeve of being interrupted the pirate then flashing a toothy grin at Will, nudging him. "Better hope ye'll never cross paths with one again, or ye end up like those poor blighters boy."

The pirate laughed at Will's somewhat flabbergasted expression, as the young man couldn't help but make an awkward face when the miscreant's mere throwaway line had come far closer to the truth than the man knew, but the said pirate then stopped his banter and returned to his duties. Will however then thinking over his previous words, considering whether it could be actually true that there were no males amongst mermaids…But then again, neither he had ever heard of such an enchantresses of the sea to have been called anything but female in the stories he himself had come upon…Making it then reasonable for them to therefore use humans for other purposes other than a mere source of food.

"The mating season…makes 'em more aggressive, even if 'em creatures weren't terrifying enough as they were. But when the heat starts…Ye better pray not to get in the way of 'em then. For I've heard stories of sailors who've had the misfortune of being lured by one of 'em beings and after doing their part facing a fate worse than mere death…Mermaids are frightful by nature, aye…but ferocious when it comes to mating", Gibbs continued. So forbodingly that his words actually managed to shaken his audience this time around, Will included, who however was then once more distracted by his dream…And how it mirrored the very things he'd just learned, things he perhaps should've known to be true but couldn't imagine to be so…very much like the very existence of these beings that was abnormal enough.

"By the way…Who's she?" Marty questioned suddenly. Causing everyone's attention to shift to the mermaid who was still sitting on the stairs where Will had previously left her all those hours later, still gazing at the ocean tirelessly…Looking considerably better from before, the ashen flair to her gone and her complexion once more appearing but radiant and glowing after suckling in the radiance of the sun…Mere passing scowls of hers to have kept every too curious crewman away against Will's concerns, but as the pirate eyed at her along with the rest of his fellow buccaneers Marty then turned mischievous as he glanced between her and Will, who instead stiffened briefly at the sound of his question rather than his tantalising tone. "Cap'n didn't actually allow ye to bring yer squeeze on board, now did he?"

"I assure you gents I have not, for young William has someone quite else to lay claim to his affections and other such affinities", Jack's voice cut in suddenly. The man himself sauntering to sight from the direction of the captain's cabin, from which none of them had noticed him to come out of until he now arrived to stand beside them. Him casting a few vexed glances at his loitering crewmen until his illegible eyes moved over to Gibbs and landed on Will, to make a point of how he neither was pleased to find the lad to have brought the mermaid out of whatever cranny he'd been keeping her till now. After a short exchange of stern gazes Jack approaching Will, cocking his head remarkably as cast an imperative glance to the mermaid's way himself. "And Mr. Turner sure is to remember the implications for his shown disregard to authority upon this vessel without it actually turning into direct act of mutiny, eh?"

Even the others could read into Jack's previous remark and identify it as a chide for going against his command, of his earlier given order to keep the mermaid away from his crew, which also meant keeping her out of sight and definitely not risking her deciding to break havoc during an outing such as this. Will however not caring nor submitting to the pirate captain's authoritative flair, even if he'd agreed to follow his commands not intending to obey them blindly if they didn't sit well with him…And keeping the mermaid holed up belowdecks didn't, did Jack like it or not.

"Aye", Will complied. But only for appearances and to signify his actual disinclination to pay heed to Jack's displeasure, if his tense delivery hadn't been enough to do that, and he then left. Passing Gibbs and the group of pirates who one by one went back to work as Jack's grim eyes settled upon them once more. To drive them back to their stations, and also Gibbs slipped away from the scene after a brisk nod, leaving his captain to stand on his own until after a moment Jack went after Will. Following him as he walked across the deck again to go to the mermaid.

_Did you hear something interesting?_

Will paused, stopping on his tracks in shock as his gaze darted up to the mermaid, who had surprisingly shifted her attention from the ocean to him, staring at him. It taking a moment for Will to piece together what had just happened, although he had instantly recognized that taut, mordant and yet eerily crooning tone that just had talked to him.

"Did you just…speak in my head?" Will asked, dumbfounded as resumed his steps and came to stand at the bottom of the stairs. Returning the mermaid's gaze as she looked back at him, unfazed by his dismay.

 _Whether I like it or not, we have been connected. Ever since I spared you from not only becoming a pray for my sisters but meeting your watery death_ , she told him. Stunning the young man further who was once again thrown off by the creature's voice actually addressing him inside his mind, until he pulled himself together enough to whisk away the majority of his disbelief to give room to confusion, making an addled frown. Not following.

"What?"

"Did you not find it strange how a mortal like you could suddenly breathe underwater?" the mermaid asked, this time out loud as fully faced Will. Perhaps looking even a bit curious herself as examined the bewildered human, however this time not shocking him, as slowly Will was beginning to understand even still found his slowly dawning discovery but confounding the more he then thought about it. Will indeed remembering that after the sinking of the _Sea Shepherd_ and the incident with the attacking mermaids he had discovered himself to be able to not only hold his breath underwater, but be able to breathe without drowning. A strange ability which however hadn't lasted long, but which abrupt appearance he was now told to be blamed for his brief encounter with this mermaid. Because of this Will giving her a puzzled look-over, gauging at her, indeed seeing no lie in her eyes as they held his.

"That was you?"

"Mermaid's kiss is said to have the power to save a man from drowning", Jack announced, waltzing to the scene as answered in place of the mermaid. Not needing to hear the details to then read more into the past of Will with this sea creature from those few words she'd just said, although he'd already been informed of the lad to have met this particular being some time in his life, Jack now coming to understand Will's motivations far better…Even if they didn't make this situation any more preferable, the pirate captain exchanging a significant look with the instantly fretful turned mermaid, who proceeded to glower at him until shifted her attention away from the pair of men. Jack instead returning Will's taken aback gaze, flashing the lad a knowing smile. "And hence it comparably connects them to the said creature in more ways than one…As ye probably discovered back at that auction."

"That kiss…" Will mused, not even remembering to turn embarrassed as he thought back to that distant day of his adolescence when he'd received his first kiss, having a realization. Also bypassing what Jack had just said as he next came to recall what many of the people aboard the _Dauntless_ back at the time had told him, that it was a miracle him to be still alive after being found floating on that flimsy raft that shouldn't have even been able to carry him. Truth being that he didn't remember anything that had happened after he'd been saved by the mermaid and he'd awoken aboard the Navy ship, however now understanding far more than he had so far in his life. "You really did save me that day…Without you I would've drowned."

The mermaid didn't react to his words, but just as Will then considered what Jack had lastly said he missed the way her eyes were briefly cast downward as he had another realization. Him turning to face the pirate captain perhaps even in slight annoyance.

"So you did hear that mermaid sing back at that auction?" he fathomed, gaining a passive glance back from the pirate.

"Of course I did."

"Then why didn't you say you did?"

"And what difference would've that exactly made, William? It wasn't as if knowing ye and me to resist to hearken to her siren song collectively would've done anything to save that poor lad who didn't…But for yer defense one could say ye to have been otherwise enthralled to do so, case in point", Jack answered indifferently, bringing out a sigh from Will as he noticed the pirate to nod to the mermaid's direction. Will mulling over Jack's reply and took it as a proof of Jack to have indeed had his own apparent dealings with mermaids...For if Jack had also heard the mermaid's voice, it meant that much of what he'd said about them must've been true…Including his previous revelation.

Jack's earlier words had actually gained the mermaid's attention, but after her gaze had curtly shifted over to contemplative looking Will she then recoiled as Jack suddenly drew closer. A cautionary hiss leaving her lips as she herself drew back from the pirate, Will swiftly stationing himself between the stairs and Jack, even the man opted to remain a clear distance away from the aggravated creature who definitely didn't like him standing even that close to her. Although the mermaid's expression was downright dismal as she leered at him Jack simply returning her icy glare unfazed, until his attention was all on Will.

"Didn't I specifically told ye to keep her out of sight? Without a proper tether no less to keep her predatory antics in line."

Will frowned in defiance, to have not missed how Jack had examined the mermaid as if she was a wayward beast incapable of self-control, just waiting to pounce on his surrounding crewmen now that she was out and about, even she hardly was in shape to do so. "She's not a prisoner, Jack."

"Is she not? Then what exactly is she?" Jack questioned, raising his arms in a quizzical manner to emphasize his point until assumed a serious expression, directing a sideways nod to the mermaid's direction, although his eyes still never left Will's. "For I'd reckon her to see herself very much like one considering her circumstances, not to mention yer unyielding persistence on bringing her along to this journey which could be in fact interpreted as unlawful captivity on her part…Not a real alteration to her previous plight from before, is it?" Jack retorted, matter-of-factly, as flashed another grin at the young blacksmith before cast a passing look to her visible injuries. Will's mien hardening for irritation as he faced the pirate, overlooking the accusation imbedded into the pirate's following notion. "Definitely a new black mark to be put in yer ever blemishing record, mate."

"I didn't force her. She is here because…"

"She wanted to be?" Jack filled in, highly skeptical as now leant closer to Will after appraising him, who blinked at his immediate reply in astonishment. Jack's voice now gaining a knowing tone as well. "Because she knows ye? Lad, she's not _like_ you. So can ye honestly say her to trust ye enough to be here just because she wanted to be, and not because she couldn't choose not to be?"

Jack managed to render Will speechless, as after a passing denial Will then realized Jack to actually have a point. Although in his desire to better his terms with the mermaid and hence ignoring the fact of him not to be caring for a normal human, he'd after all forsaken the truth of her in fact not being one. That she'd been driven to this situation indeed not because she herself had chosen to come with him, but because he'd technically insisted upon it…Her to have in fact jumped into the sea and much rather opted to let herself rot to the bottom of the ocean than to accompany him on board a ship riddled with humans she so detested, from her perspective ending up surrounded by beasts who'd slaughtered many of her fellow mermaids, one right in front of her, almost killing her as well. So finally seeing what Jack was after and admitting it as a fact Will said nothing in response as dropped his gaze, the pirate giving him one more earnest look-over until stepped back. Turning on his heels.

"Just keep in mind why we're here, lad…And not let any falsified displays of fraudulent affection convince ye otherwise."

Will sighed as sent Jack off with a concurring nod. Right. Elizabeth. He was continuously dismissing why he'd joined his lot with this band of criminals in the first place, his current dilemma with the suddenly resurfaced mythical being of his past to should have not grown too prominent to cloud his judgement, yet alone his resolve…Jack was right.

But regardless as he then turned around himself, to gaze at the alluring creature that had relaxed the minute Jack had taken his leave, Will instantly knew that despite of what the pirate had just told him he realized not to be able to turn himself as uncaring as he probably should've been when it came to her own quandary. Especially when he now knew what he knew, that back when she'd been the one to offer her unprecedented aid to him she had not only helped him, but indeed gifted him with something that he hadn't even known to treasure until now when it was but a memory…Her lingering protection, that had remained even after her path had already parted from his.

"So you saved me in more ways than one…I feel like I'm more indebted to you than I first realized", he said. Seating himself to the lower stairs where the mermaid occupied the highest steps. To maintain a comfortable distance between them as he gazed up, to capture her eyes that shortly had ventured down to look at him as she herself went back to the day she'd first met him…How she'd strayed not far from that piece of driftwood that had come close to becoming that boy's doom even before the appearance of that black ship, until his fate had been altered and he'd been taken to safety…Will following her to shift her sights elsewhere, back to the view of the ocean that she never seemed to grow tired of, her words conversely impassive and most dismissive as she responded.

"I was young and timid. I should've just killed you then and spared you the humiliation of being indebted to a beast who tried to eat you."

"Perhaps you should've…But I'm grateful you didn't. For if accumulating this debt means that I shall one day meet you again after you've left, I'd rather leave it unpaid", Will answered. Even his response took the creature aback him even surprising himself until he thought over his just said words, and although found it confusing as in to why he'd exactly said so he still didn't correct them. Letting his eyes then scour the deck as the mermaid faced him, the young man missing the way she was gauging at him now openly baffled. Lost to why he would speak in such manner as he still didn't possess any particular reason to wish to meet her again after their once more briefly interlocked lives would continue their course without ever joining again, Will eyeing at the crewmen clambering up in the rigging until he shuffled around, leaning against the handrail of the staircase. Resting his arms on his knees as the mermaid now shifted her attention to the sky and the clouds that sailed across the dominant blue. Now feeling somewhat abashed by his last said words Will letting out a sigh, his thoughts reeling back to his earlier exchange with the crew, which then gave him the initiative to attempt to gain answers to some of his questions still left uncleared.

"What is it like where you come from…Your home?"

"Savage…Ruthless. My kind spends their whole life defering to the strongest of us, serving our pod as designed by our inherent roles in our colony, until we've either fulfilled our purpose or die defending it. We live only for the pod, and those like me can never place ourselves above our sisters, to challenge those superior to us in hopes of a mere bigger share of the quarry, aren't allowed to go against the dominant ones to improve our stand…Anyone doing so condemning themselves to death."

"Those like you?" Will repeated. Many new questions forming, but chose to ignore them for now in favour of that single inquiry, even her dour words altogether disturbed him. Especially the last part that had given him a chilling insight to the world she lived in and which was so different from his. The mermaid not responding to that, deliberately refusing to elaborate, as her features were now notably more grievous once they spent the following moment in silence.

This gave Will a chance to mull over the few things she had said, and regardless of the overall bleak outlook she'd given him about her way of life he realized even her kind to seemingly adhere to a hierachial society still much similar to his…A stratum divided by status and power, with a clear distinction between the privileged and those not which he indeed was more than familiar with, even amongst her kind such classification must've been much more…as she'd put it, brutal. Defined by not a social rank but mere corporeal strength that had nothing to do with money or political power…Be as it may, them still apparently employing some form of orderly authority amongst their colony instead of living like mere predatory monsters humans labeled them as without question, was it simple submitting to said hierarchy…However due to that specific implicit notion and from that little Will had learned he figured that the place she came indeed wasn't quite a providential one to live…And just as she'd said, cruel and harsh to anyone too weak to survive it. Nevertheless such ponders leaving Will unable to stop comparing it to his, on many reminiscent aspects.

"Then perhaps our worlds aren't quite so far apart", he remarked, rather dismally and let out an amused breath, but which was most definitely devoid of humor. The difference in social class and people's mere worth perfectly displayed in the dismissive manner he himself had been treated back at Fort Charles when he had arrived to inform Norrington of Elizabeth's abduction, all the Officers of noble background down to the Governor neglecting his suggestions to use Jack to track down the pirates, solely because he was of the lower class…A _blacksmith_ as the highly esteemed Commodore had so definitively pointed out. "Even here one's value is often defined by the way people see you and regard you according to your station and birth…instead of by what you've become or accomplished."

Will earned himself another passing glance from the mermaid as she considered his response, taking note of the young man's frustrated expression, until Will got disposed of such irksome ponders and focused on to the mermaid again. Still curious.

"Why did you leave your colony? If your pod is as important to you as you say, why did you leave it to come here?" he asked then. Mostly curious about how she had ended up captured by those hunters, if it was true that her kind didn't come to the surface unless it was at least one out of the two earlier presented reasons…Him however then figuring to know the answer even without hearing the mermaid's answer as he remembered her to have said to have been lured into a trap during a hunt. The mermaid's reply however downright stupefying him, for he hadn't expected to be quite as wrong as he was.

"There are no males amongst our kind…So once every few decades some of us are chosen to leave our pod for the mere purpose of going to the surface world, to find a human man to breed with to ensure the survival of our species", the mermaid explained. Will's eyes darting back to her, as as if to decidedly unnerve him she then took hold of the opposing banister and leant over to him, looking straight into his eyes. "It was my turn to leave…And I was relieved. For not all of us enjoy to be bound to our pod down to our very blood, without a right to abandon it ere death."

Something in her previous words stroke an another chord in Will as he could've clearly detected certain kind of woe in her voice as she'd said them, even if her demeanor remained that similar stoic and stern. However once he'd cast a compassionate look at the mermaid, even without her further clarifying him to have still been able to picture what she'd meant, the things she'd said before finally sank in. Him thinking it over until the very idea quickly bemused him, and although it at first proved a bit hard he then turned his eyes away from the mermaid as he managed to assume a somewhat passive expression. Still failing to appear fully casual, as while under the magnetic gaze of the mermaid he couldn't hide his unease. Clearly mortified.

"So you…came here to…" he began, highly uncomfortable. Will trying his hardest to suppress a prominent blush once he considered the idea of her to have left the depths of the ocean simply to lie with a man. The present young, and most definitely mostly inexperienced man then finding himself unable to finish his sentence as the mermaid now tipped her head at his agitation. Coming even closer, drawing the blacksmith's gaze back up to meet hers as she gauged at him, so attentively that her keen stare almost caused Will to squirm. Him not even noticing to be soon placed under some kind of an odd charm, was it simply his own unsettled, bashful reaction to this beguiling creature's current, particularly captivating presence.

"To mate with a man like you, yes. And I can't return until that's done", she agreed. Despite of his still somewhat sustained modesty Will not being able to free himself from under the influence of her stare once again, until he finally managed ot pry his eyes away from her mien that was still stoic and devoid of any sign of similar abashment he was feeling…Will clearing his throat as gladly directed his attention to the sea for as long as it took for him to reply, to settle down.

"Well, I…hope you'll find such a man once you're better and are free to go home", he said curtly. Trying not to think too much about their previous, hardly suitable exchange as he was embarrassed by it enough as it was, where the mermaid only eyed at him curiously. Honestly confused as to why would this man be this bothered by her coming to the surface for the single purpose of copulating, when he himself had asked about it…And since his kind did the very same thing. Despite of her not knowing much of the world of humans her knowing that even they weren't just conceived out of thin air, generating a human child also requiring a male and a female to mate to procreate…Nothing quite so extraordinary about that, the least of all worth to act this coy for.

However not possessing quite as casual view of the indecorous shift in their discussion Will once more looked away in unease, saying nothing for awhile in his attempt to put the inappropriate topic aside, and his mind began to wander. Soon enough reeling back to the mermaid in his presence who had many times over proven to be impossible to disregard even by simply sitting there, and he soon cast her a wondering glance. Following her cue by raising his eyes to stare at the swarm of clouds as encouraged by the little things they'd previously come to share, as confounding and unconventional as they had been, he braved himself to act a tad more bold in his approach. Believing that since she'd actually felt confident to lower her guard just enough to open up to him she wouldn't mind if he were to push the boundary of that shown hint of trust a bit further.

"It is odd to have no name to call you by."

The mermaid simply leveled a sideways glance at him in silence, just like before seeing to point for him to call her by any name, and her wordless response then caused Will's mien to turn contemplative. Him looking at her in realization.

"Indeed…You have no names."

"When your sole purpose is to tend to the prosperity of your pod names are unnecessary."

Will frowned at that, also that particular remark sounding somewhat disheartening, or perhaps even sad. Such peremptory, unfeeling account perfectly reflecting the callousness of her reality that seemed to leave no room for personal abundance, instead sacrificing it on behalf of her colony's well-being she had no choice but see to even with her life…Even if it indeed meant her spending the rest of her existence in continuous, unrewarding service of it, without as much having freedom to decide through which course to do so when such existence went as far as dictating her very reproduction…Despite of her actual liability to it or not.

"Well, since here you have no obligations to any other but yourself…I will give you a name."

The mermaid's eyes once more shifted to him, but their gaze was now but doubtful as she gauged at him. In an attempt to understand him for once more speaking so strangely, where Will rose and his attention was directed back to the ocean. His mind automatically starting to go over a few typical female names, until moved on to consider varying forms of the word mermaid and its counterparts instead…Trying to come up with a clever version of it to craft a distinctive name that stood out from the more conventional ones, one he felt like suiting her better, until abandoned that particular course of thinking. Going through many iterations and plays of mere words associated with her being, such that could as imaginatively be modulated into a befitting name for her, until with a pleased smile he finally settled upon a certain variant that popped into his head after a while of mulling over a set of real and not so real names…Him finally deciding upon one that gratified him, enough for him to be quite content to have someone carry it.

"Merwynn", he mused, at first as if to assure himself until turned to lock gazes with the mermaid. Bearing witness to her absolute astonishment as she must've also considered the name just given to her, and her reaction did then amuse him as he figured to have never seen her quite that fazed by him. Therefore Will making a decisive nod as his smile widened once the mermaid's taken aback, but still not opposing demeanor told of approval, her instead studying him now rather pensively as much as he was able to read her altogether stolid countenance, which he however had begun to find cracks in to see under her inexpressive exterior. Positive that in time he would learn to read even more into her reserve without her actually further confiding with him from that little she already had. "I will call you Merwynn."

The mermaid once more didn't say a word. Her simply looking back at his human and taking in his candid mien that spoke of sincerity like so many times before, his so warm smile and benevolent bearing addling her, until she then couldn't hold back the same flicker of emotion that she'd felt once before…Long time ago during similar situation that may have been different in essence, but still caused her to feel far less cautious than she should've, heartfelt…Her then however only turning her eyes away from the young man, quiet as ever, but Will could truly tell her to be quite not so opposed to her newly given name as she would've been by speaking, or as much as glaring at him…Telling him that she in fact didn't seem to mind it. Perhaps liking it.


	8. Latent Senses

Will watched as Merwynn was finishing up her breakfast. Last of his that morning’s catch in her hands as she made quick work of devouring the remnants of her still highly lacking meal, her hunger seeming to grow with each passing week the stronger she was becoming. During the past three days Will to have taken notice of her injuries to have actually come close to healing properly, the savage bruising mostly gone now and the worst of gashes on her legs and feet all to have scarred, perhaps much thanks to the constant diet of fish he’d been able to provide her with…Which however was far from enough, Will knew that much. As the minute she’d began to make attempts of standing, the time dedicated to the healing process to have gifted her with enough strength to actually take a few solid steps on her own, he’d realized her craving for sustenance to have increased along with her vigor…It not helping that he’d had quite a bad luck of catching fish lately, much to her irritation. But still, without her usual type of nourishment she remained quite feeble, weaker than she would’ve been should she have spent all this while consuming the people aboard the ship.

“You can slow down. No one is going to take that from you”, Will mused as cast a playful look at the bucket at the feet of his tiny cot. Flashing her a slight smile where she simply locked dismissive gazes with him, heedless to his tantalising tone, although she did then proceed to eat the final fish with more care and calm. Not gobbling it down as if the finned creature would grow wings and fly out of the porthole if she didn’t.

“I’m starving.”

There was a slight twinge of quilt as Will nodded, glancing at the bucket again. “I know. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to give you much to eat these days Wynn.”

Naturally Wynn didn’t answer as licked her fingers clean, edging away from the cot’s side and carefully propped herself against the wall. The look she was giving him however relaying perfectly what she was thinking without her even needing to say anything, and quick to pick up her significant stare Will gave her a jaded look in return as quirked an opposing eyebrow. His own ponders shifting to the animals she yet had been unsuccessful of devouring after that particular night at the cargo hold.

“Absolutely not.”

Naturally she understood. However her very demeanor screaming of insatiable hunger that a few fishes did little to abate, leaving her not even close to satisfied, and Will had to admit her gaze to seem downright voracious as it next wandered about the cabin. Soon settling onto him, them eyeing at one another until to distract himself from her predatory traits seeping through her regardless admirable composure Will shifted his attention to her legs. After casting a brief quizzical look up to her, asking her permission, him stretching out an arm and took hold of the pant leg of her breeches. Pulling it upward to inspect the damage, which indeed was considerably lesser compared to what her wounds had looked only two days prior.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, drawing his hand away once after inspecting the longest of cuts his fingers made the mistake of lingering onto the so far healed, smooth skin. Marveling how the ulcers didn’t seem to even leave a scar, until he remembered her to be an actual magical being…Whether or not magic even really had anything to do with it. “Are you still in pain?”

“No. Just fatigued”, Wynn replied. Despite of her words her however then gasping once she drew her hooked legs closer to herself, indicating that they still remained sore and not fully recovered. And as Will then examined her he could tell her to look worn out, that certain glow she previously had began to regain about her now diminished and overshadowed by her lassitude, even she had been able to go outside these past few days. The lack of such vibrancy however present mostly in her complexion, which although didn’t look wane per se thanks to the sunlight she’d basked under every chance she’d gotten, had began to grow dry and lifeless…Indicating the length of time she’d spent out of the ocean. And Will couldn’t help but look upon her in sadness then, taking in the visual strain her prolonged stay out of her environment was putting her under, realizing these weeks that had gone by but slowly to him to have been a struggle to her in more ways than one. Him seeing it directly from her eyes that then again grew a bit wistful like sometimes before, sorrowful of having to be apart from something that practically had been a part of her since her birth.

“I wish I could do more for you”, Will hoped. Without noticing saying his thoughts aloud, as happened often in fact whenever he was in her presence lately. It to have proven rather curious how on several occasion something about her silent companionship had brought out things from him he usually would’ve kept to himself, were they merely his private musings he wouldn’t share with anyone but his conscience. But perhaps it simply had something to do with the ease that talking to her was…For Will felt that there was nothing he couldn’t confide her with, for she didn’t know him nor had a similar outlook on things as he did thanks to the utterly different worlds that defined them, the thought of her therefore not judging him for either sounding liberating to the young man. That for once there was someone he could share a glimpse of himself with without any prejudice or social class dictating his very existence as a mere person…Except of him being a human of course. That if anything was a major flaw in him.

“Why? Haven’t I been an impediment enough for you as it is?” Wynn asked, causing Will to break into a laughter after he’d let out an amused huff at that last thought.

“Or I to you. After I imposed my kindness onto you you were forced to stay with humans”, he stated. Smiling at Wynn whose eyes shifted back to him, gauging at him.

“You’re not the worst of the humans I’ve dealt with.”

Will’s smile widened into a smirk. “Glad to hear it. Although I could swear to be but a butcher when it comes to tending wounds…I’m a blacksmith, not a doctor.”

Will let out an awkward chuckle at Wynn’s expression that could’ve signaled her to agree with him, indeed more than familiar with his clumsy methods of healing from those times he’d dared himself to change her bandages, but as she then returned his gaze she seemed baffled. Her examining him in confusion, but by the looks of it she was very addled by his previous notion.

“I’m confused. I’ve seen men with dark complexion before, but you are not like that.”

“No…It’s my profession”, Will explained. Chuckling some more as behold how even further perplexed his reply had made Merwynn, and to demonstrate he took out his borrowed cutlass and placed it between them. “I earn my living by crafting things. I work at a forge where I use fire to mold objects out of metal.”

“You made this?” Wynn accosted. Scowling at the blade, kind of which had been responsible of almost lacerating her to death, hence her aversion. Will shaking his head at her as instantly removed the sword from her proximity, placing it onto his knees while gave her now a somewhat smug smile.

“No. My work is much more refined and detailed than this.”

“You make weapons?”

Will paused for a moment at her sharp delivery, but his smile didn’t fade. Him simply tipping his head as a sign of partial concur, crossing his fingers. “Yes. And a lot of other things. Most of the commissions I work on include repairs for everyday objects townspeople use, like cartwheels and household items, or shoeing horses.”

There had been a taut edge to Wynn’s voice before but she was once more only nonplussed by Will’s words, her casting now an incredulous look at the young man at the sound of his latest statement before glanced at his own buckled shoe that had risen to rest on his knee in turn once he’d put the blade away.

“You have horses wear shoes? Made of metal?”

Will was taken aback, him making a pensive frown. “You know what a horse is?”

“I’ve eaten one before. A ship my sisters and I once attacked had one aboard it. Unpalatable creature…The meat was too sinewy.”

Will drew a blank for a moment until he made an understanding nod as gauged at Wynn’s now but deadpan expression, his smile turning a tad more uncomfortable despite of the humorous hum that left him next, as he shouldn’t have been surprised by her response…nor shocked for that matter. “Of course you have.”

“Why do you make things that your kind uses for killing?” Wynn asked then. Her tone once more but concise as she gazed at Will, her givenly being more concerned of him crafting weapons rather than the things he’d just informed her to consist the majority of his workload, him perhaps even picking up a brief instance of betrayal from her irises as they studied him in a passing ire. Her hatred of blades he himself preferred forging evidently present in their current exchange, and this time Will made an uneasy frown as locked gazes with her. His mien earnest.

“I don’t forge swords for people to use them to hurt others. I make them because that’s what I like doing…What I’m good at. Best at”, Will responded sincerely, earning now even a bit skeptical look from the alluring creature until he smiled, thinking back to the years he’d spent in that forge that had become like a home to him. Where he’d been raised into adulthood, recalling all those painstaking times of his past adolescence he’d spent solely honing his skills during his apprenticeship, each and every day he’d slowly trained to craft a sword from scratch all by himself, until finally the time had come for his faculty to have matured and he’d successfully made his first ever weapon. It to have been but one out of many yet to come, and now…he couldn’t have been more proud of the level of his workmanship.

Will turned to face Wynn, his gaze reassuring as it met the mermaid’s. Regardless of her doubts her soon seeing that the young man was but honest as he then spoke, no sign of deceit either in his eyes or his mien in that following moment he proceeded to explain his work to her. Like before while responding to her questions coming to share something personal of himself with her…His very perception of his work, which he quite honestly hadn’t been able to share with anyone. It in fact even feeling somewhat relieving to be able to open up about his love for craftsmanship to someone who knew nothing about his profession, and most importantly didn’t assume his work as his master’s simply because he was known around town as a blacksmith’s apprentice...Even it was him who carried the weight of running the man’s business all on his own.

“I don’t see swords as mere weapons…but as works of art. Creations of utmost beauty and skill that each are unique to their maker and which come to being through one’s abilities and talent. Reflecting our very passion for our profession and the love we feel to every single object we make...because it is something we have made ourselves. So whenever I’m in the process of making a new sword and finally get to look upon my work after hours of carefully molding it to my ideal shape…it’s when I feel like my knowledge comes to its truest potential and I am making full use of all that I’ve learned, as well as my skill...of who I am. And I feel valuable myself, equally so to the objects I forge…My truest self.”

They were silent for a moment as Wynn considered Will’s words. Her not giving him a response to inform him did she understood his meaning, but once his gaze strayed up to hers Will knew she did. Just did not say it. And despite of the relief he gained from her such wordless contribution his mind was then swift to darken.

“My profession is pretty much the only thing of value I can call my own... Aside for my life of course. But that weighs little on the scale of expectations governed by mere status and power, traits which in my world are strictly endowed to those already privileged in birth…Unlike people like me who’s had to struggle to achieve the little I’ve come to have, my work which remains as my sole virtue…And it still isn’t enough.”

“I don’t see how the ability to create things could be the only thing that makes you valuable”, Wynn told him bluntly. Fazing him in fact, and the more she then looked him with those discerning, insightful eyes the more bemused he quickly found himself to grow once she soon continued. As was typical of her viewing things utterly differently, but in her own upfront, less coy manner also making sense to him when he mulled over her response…Her to have successfully read into things that he’d left unsaid when his thoughts had shortly drifted to Elizabeth and his unrequited love for this young woman of higher social class…whom he would never be considered worthy of. “You are a strong and virile male among your peers. In mind of reproduction that should count more than a pretentious claim of value through the means of fortune instead of physical prowess most vital to breeding.”

“Well, you’re right…In a way”, Will agreed, but did have to clear his throat. Even he’d become quite accustomed to her manner of brushing past any restrains of touching upon delicate topics such as this instant heat rising to his cheeks at her so straightforward analogy that was of practical nature, as was herself while compared to his much more complex idealogy of a human’s. Will then thinking a moment, and despite of his abashment over the not anymore quite so unheard of shift in their conversation he couldn’t help himself from asking, making his following question before he could remind himself of how improper it was. “Is that…what you seek from the man you’re…going to mate with?”

Taken his past discomfort of discussing such matters Wynn was actually surprised by Will’s inquiry, but she instantly leveled a concurring look to his way. That brief moment Will held her gaze her looking at him affirmatively, like before showing no qualms of expressing her lack of reservations when it came to procreation that to her was a simple act. A mere word, which to Will encompassed a lot more she had not been yet exposed to even as a concept. Something about her gaze then flustering him a bit as she gazed at him…Awakening something he didn’t know to lay dormant in him…Something that got his palms sweating as he listened to Wynn’s response.

“I need to mate with a male who is of vigorous quality. A young, potent man in his prime who can surely leave me with a worthy offspring…A man like you”, Wynn replied. Befuddling Will who then discovered all words to escape him as he was now subjected to another careful study of the mermaid’s measuring, clearly revering gaze, her seeming to see him as a prime example of such a valuable specimen amongst human males. After his initial mortification over this fact however Will starting to consider her words from another perspective, one that was so important to him when it came to male and female relationships which were strictly run by pure instinct to the likes of Merwynn, and Will raised his own eyes back to her in wonder. Not shying away from facing her keen stare this time around as honestly curious he eyed at her thoughtfully.

“So you don’t desire affection from the man you wish to have a child with?”

“What does affection have to do with it?” Wynn asked, truly lost to his point. “I shall need to lay with more than one man to conceive, so I don’t see a need to form an attachment to any I breed with…Whoever would successfully manage to impregnate me.”

“With more than one?” Will stated, skeptical and perhaps somewhat scandalized of this never before mentioned reveal, where Wynn only looked at him as if his shock was utterly unwarranted.

“Do you honestly imagine my kind staying with a single male when we detest men as much as eating them out of mere hatred rather than need alone?”

Will made a slight, tense smile, raising his eyebrows in agreement. “I suppose not.”

Having to fight against an urge to flush at the uneasy thought of mermaids willingly sleeping with multiple men to reach their goal of successful breeding, Wynn having to go through this to achieve that, Will next thought about her words. Composing himself instead and simply looking at her in disbelief, mostly feeling in fact sorry for her such linear thinking, one that left no room to any of that which humans found inherent in a relationship, in ensuing marriage and forming a family. To Wynn giving birth to a child being an obligation rather than something she desired for herself, and once more Will couldn’t exactly blame her for it. It was just the way she’d learned to regard the matter, not expecting anything else to come out of it, and who was he to judge or as much as pity her for it? For this reason him now casting a understanding gaze at her, coming to terms with her response, even he did find her such practicality regrettable.

“Seems exhausting....You trying to breed for the mere purpose of breeding.”

Wynn’s mien was but stolid as she replied. “It is what I was born to do…The sole value I was meant to attain.”

Will frowned, any hint of humor he’d went for disappearing, but he said nothing at first. Just looked back at Merwynn earnestly, once more reminded how much more simpler her on the other hand notably more callous and crude life devoid of any volition was compared to his. It however being that very fact that then made it impossible for him to hide his compassion.

“Still you never know…Feelings and affection may turn out to have a bigger part in your plan than you think.”

Wynn clearly didn’t understand what he was referring to, but neither did seem to care much, and it didn’t bother Will either who then decidedly moved on from this particular topic to a more comfortable one. Ever since he’d learned more about Wynn his curiosity to have only increased and there were now so many things he wanted to know about…Both about her and mermaids themselves.

“How many of you are there?” he queried. Figuring their numbers not to be all that dwindling if they set out to breed so rarely, but still it made him inquisitive as to how prosperous they truly were…Plentiful enough to have so many sailors dread for crossing paths with them without actually seeing them with their own eyes, only hearing about them from stories.

“In my pod there are less than a hundred of us. There once were more, but we’ve been captured and killed plenty by fishermen and hunters alike.”

“Are there other pods aside from yours?” Will questioned, remembering the auctioneer to have said something along the lines of Wynn and the other mermaid to have been part of a distinct group of creatures, indicating there to be another pod, which Wynn then confirmed.

“There are. The largest group of our kind resides at an island humans call the _Whiteap Bay_ …But although greater in number they are much different from us.”

“You’re stronger than them?” Will asked, remembering the auctioneer to have practically claimed so. Wynn staring at him square in the eye, and indeed the look in hers didn’t leave room for doubt.

“More ravenous. And as more ancient we’re less vulnerable than them.”

Will took that as a yes as mulled over Wynn’s remark. Finding himself even more intrigued as considered the fact there to be multiple pods of mermaids lurking in the Caribbean waters, or perhaps in all the seas of the world…All having their own hidden underwater colonies in which they dwelled, which however begged the question... “And where do you live?”

“It is not a place you could find…but rather somewhere you’d end up should you be swept by the tides at a certain time and be taken to there where none exists”, Wynn told him. Confusing him until she continued, however not elaborating herself all that much further even she did answer his question. “The island I inhabit is of not this world nor the next…and it can be located only by us or those granted passage to our dwelling, which is more of a myth than an actual place any human has ever actually ventured or seen…Island of _Ilsa Sirena_.”

“ _Sirena_?” Will repeated, stunned. “Sirens?”

“They are the strongest of our kind, but rarely show themselves to humans. They possess a more ethereal form and aren’t tied to the sea, with actual powers granted by Calypso that allows them to transport our island to the existing world to attract prey, which makes them more potent while compared to us. My pod is led by our alphas, our queens, but their will is solely reigned by the rule of our superior beings…”

“Calypso?” Will asked, not even bothering to wonder over the fact that sirens were real out loud. To have never heard that name before, but from the way Wynn had said it that particular name appearing to have some prominent meaning to it…And for his following dismay the young man deemed to actually see a sliver of fear in Merwynn as she replied, this time her delivery much more dour.

“Sea Goddess who gave us our form. Daughter of Titan Atlas who created us at the dawn of time and to whom we all answer to as the heathen Mistress of the Depths….The one none of us can defy.”

There was a pause as Will came to terms with the facts he’d been given. His musings soon reeling back to what Merwynn had said previously.

“So you…are in service to sirens?” he surmised.

“You could say that.”

“Why?”

“They use us to lure humans and bring them prey while they remain in the safety of the island... Despite of their reputation they are very withdrawn creatures.”

“So Calypso created you to be in service to them? To die and hunt for them?”

“That’s how it is.”

Will was honestly rendered speechless and all he could do was stare at Merwynn in astonishment. This all starting to sound too unbelievable, him to have just gotten accustomed to the idea of mermaids existing. Now her telling him there to be a more threatening species that existed above them, another group of mythical beings that humans were familiar with through stories and myths…Only for them to turn out real. At the thought of this Will scoffing, wondering whatever else often spoken in sailors’ fabrications concerning anything supernatural would prove to be not so fabricated? Well at this point it would’ve been fair to assume everything.

“They don’t care much about us…As long as we agree to do their bidding”, Wynn continued. Snapping Will out of his musings and he made an absent-minded nod until his train of thought was fully cut by the mermaid’s following question. Will’s lack of response giving her a chance to eye at him, wonder about him.

“Where is your home?”

“Far away in Scotland…But the town where I’ve lived these past years is called Port Royal”, Will explained. Surprised that she’d actually asked that of him, but despite of his answer he didn’t expect her to know where either of the places were. And indeed she didn’t mind knowing, instead seeming more curious as to his reasons of leaving his own home behind.

“Did you leave to mate?

“Definitely not”, Will said. Holding back his embarrassment and masked it with a hearty chuckle, turning melancholy then after exchanging a brief glance with Merwynn. “I was far too young for that. You should remember the kind of a scrawny boy I was…”

“Yes. There was not much to consume in you.”

Will laughed. Visibly baffling Wynn who followed him to chuckle at her bleak comment until the moment of mirth passed and he composed himself, now thinking back to the times that had preceded his passage from England. The recollection of his mother causing his heart to lurch, but not so much so as once before…For she had passed a long time ago.

“I left Scotland to find my father. My mother died and I set out to track him down, to deliver him the news, but as I was sailing to where his last letter had been delivered…Well, you know what happened. You were there.”

They exchanged a significant look, Will propping his elbows against his knees as sat fully onto the edge of his cot. “After you spared me I was found floating from the sea and rescued by a Naval vessel that was sailing to Port Royal…I joined them on their passage and once there I was placed under the guardianship of the town’s blacksmith by the Governor…And I’ve lived there ever since.”

“And now you’re out here…Chasing after the men who took his daughter”, Wynn said. Will facing her in dismay, but unlike before didn’t let it slide how she seemed to know things that he hadn’t mentioned before.

“How do you know about Elizabeth?”

Wynn didn’t respond, simply held his gaze for a short moment until let hers drop, thinking. Once her eyes snapped back up to him the look in them once more perceptive as they bored into his.

“Is she someone you wish to mate with?”

Will was floored by the question, but instead of letting it overwhelm him he soon assumed a collected demeanor. Letting out a sigh as turned away from the mermaid, despondent.

“One day yes…But I doubt I can.”

Wynn frowned. “Why?”

“Because I’m like you. I can’t just live the way I want without consequences and expectations stipulating otherwise...And that includes Elizabeth.”

“If not to claim her, why are you here?” Wynn asked, beyond confused. Even further perplexed by his emerging smile unlike she’d ever seen him wear before. One that spoke of something stronger than kindness…Something that softened his very irises as he spoke of the woman next.

“To save her. Because even if I can’t ever have her I want to make sure she’s safe…Even if she would end up marrying someone else.”

“Why can’t you just choose another female? There must be more than the one you’re this set on having”, Wynn remarked, truly not understanding the need for all this fuss over a single human woman who according to this man’s words didn’t even desire him. Will letting out an amused but also a bit disheartened breath, his smile turning now openly sad.

“If it were that simple I would’ve already done so…Believe me.”

Merwynn couldn’t quite read Will then. His expression so strange and unforeseen that she couldn’t come close to figuring what was it that he was actually feeling now when he was so clearly harrowed by this woman’s fate, her very existence. In some way many of the things he’d previously said making some sense to her, but she didn’t then trouble herself further of trying to understand him…For humans were strange, over-complex creatures she would never learn to comprehend.

“Is she that remarkable of a mate to be worth perhaps even your life?” Wynn asked, beholding how Will’s smile turned back to tender.

“Rather my life is barely worthy of hers.”

Merwynn gauged at Will in doubt, addled until she seemed but jaded by his remark. “Ridiculous.”

Will smiled slightly. Shifting his head so that he could level an amused look at the indignant mermaid who then let the matter aside, saying nothing then as simply sat there huddled against the cabin wall. Will sharing her silence until his own wandering gaze soon fixated to her hand, the glimpse of the burn mark on her palm bringing him back to the wonders he still harboured of her and before he knew it he’d deftly clasped Merwynn’s hand into his. Causing her to twitch as his fingers made contact with hers without this time seeking her approval and he turned her hand around, to gaze at the ugly image of a skull that sneered back at him.

“Why does gold burn you?” he inquired. His thumb tracing the outlines of the scar as he shifted his grim turned eyes from the image of the burnt skull to Wynn who only cast her own irises downward. Surprisingly allowing his touch as stared at the burn mark herself before did draw her hand away from his light grip, to touch the round sear with her own fingertips.

“I don’t know. If I did I wouldn’t have touched that thing around your neck in the first place.”

“My father gave it to me actually…He sent that medallion to me before he went missing”, Will informed her. Meeting Wynn’s gaze until shot her an apologetic look, although the incident of branding her with that burn hardly could be blamed on him. “I’m sorry…”

“You’re sorry about a lot of things. Is that all you humans do?” Wynn queried dismissively, causing Will to flash her a crooked smirk.

“I guess it is. I hope I could be as unapologetic as you are.”

Will raised remarkable eyebrows as Wynn cast him another heedless look, until her eyes then dropped to his neck area. Not seeing the said medallion.

“If that torrid trinket was your father’s why aren’t you wearing it?” she asked, suspicious as to why would this man who seemed to be of rather sentimental sort would not be wearing a keepsake from his long lost parent, her gaining a wondering glance back from Will.

“I lost it. I think I dropped it when I was pulled out of the water the day we met.”

Something about Wynn’s gaze that lapsed from his then caused Will to doubt his just said words for some reason, but as she then turned her attention elsewhere he didn’t think much of it. However knowing it to be true that the last time he’d seen the medallion was when it had burned Merwynn’s palm, and once he’d woken aboard the _Dauntless_ he no longer had been wearing it. Leaving him to believe that at some point during the incident with the mermaids the chain had come undone and the medallion had been lost to the ocean.

As another silence ensued Will could then register clear sounds of awoken crewmen moving about the deck above them, and he realized he needed to go out and join them. With one last smile given to the mermaid him leaving his cabin after naking sure she would be alright until his return, once on deck getting instantly greeted by Gibbs who shoved a swabbing brush to his arms. Although disgruntled by his that morning’s task the blacksmith therefore spending the following hours scrubbing the ship clean…Stopping only after the First Mate was satisfied with the state of the quarterdeck that had become the most squalid during the past week’s sail.

An eternity later Will let out a tired groan as jogged down the steps leading belowdecks, carrying his plateful of provisions that had been handed out after he and the other sailors had been given leave until late noon. Him now having a few of hours to himself and his first intention was to go enjoy a quick lunch while habitually checking on Wynn. Figuring that despite of her usually shown indifference to him her must’ve learned to take a liking to his company when she usually spent the majority of the days alone. Him hence dedicating all the time he could spare to her, and since he felt like they’d grown somewhat closer by now she definitely must not have minded it, nor had she taken offence of him using the name he’d given her. Will not helping but smiling at that thought. That name did suit her well.

Will called out to Wynn before entering, as always expecting to see her lounging on the bed since she still didn’t seem to do much sleeping, but he was frozen to his spot by the door once he was greeted with mere silence. For the first time finding himself gazing at an empty bed. She wasn’t there.

This alarmed Will, him making a double check of the unoccupied cabin in confusion, as Wynn had never disappeared like this. Ever since departing Tortuga him to have always known where she was, but now there was no trace of her. The words of Jack telling him to keep her from wandering about the ship instantly resurfacing in Will’s mind and the young man let out a voiceless curse, him trying to come up with a explanation as to where Merwynn could’ve gone as dropped his plate onto the table and exited the room. Will halting briefly in middle of the narrow corridor as gazed about, naturally not seeing any sign of her, and he had no choice but to begin to search the vessel. As more and more time passed without him finding the missing mermaid him venturing deeper into the ship, a thought then suddenly occurring to him that Wynn had been most likely driven out of his cabin by her hunger. Her to have dared to leave it in search of food, which in itself was a very worrying notion…Hounded by this realization Will then hurrying over to the cargo hold, being able to only assume her to have gone there to perhaps feast onto the animals kept there, but once he stormed down to the hold what he found were all the animals in their tethers and cages…None missing or dead.

Relieved sigh slipped his lips as against his brief fears he saw no blood on the floor, all the goats and birds still intact and untouched, very much alive. As he scanned his surroundings him not indeed seeing Merwynn anywhere, although it would’ve been only logical for her to have gone down there since this was the only other place she was familiar with aboard this vessel. Nonetheless even he at first regarded to be down there on his own Will then picking up a certain noise, creaking of the floorboards which told of footsteps ambling about at the other side of a pile of crates and barrels, and he immediately took off to the direction of the sound. Thinking it to be Wynn, but was surprised when instead of the mermaid he discovered one of the pirates there. The man towering above one of the barrels and once he soon straightened Will quickly realized it to be filled with rum once the buccaneer took a greedy sip from a tankard he was holding. Third of the beverage spilling onto the lapels of his jacket and beard, him to have apparently snuck down there to secretly drink from the reserves, and by the looks of that uncontrollable waver that had taken control of his limbs he’d already guzzled up a notable amount. The man appearing so drunk that he didn’t even hear Will to arrive, a disappointed sigh escaping the young man as he then followed the miscreant to finish his drink until eagerly bent down to dip his tankard into the barrel again.

Will shot him a jaded look as the pirate made a precarious swing forward, almost falling into the barrel, which would’ve probably suited the man, but just as Will was about to leave him to his clandestine indulgence he picked up movement from the corner of his eye. Will coming to a halt as his eyes fixated to the dark corner of the hold, him at first seeing nothing but something lurking under the stairs behind the bibulous buccaneer until a pair of gleaming eyes trained to the man’s every move revealed that skulking figure to be in fact Wynn. Will stiffening as he followed her to come out of her hiding and instantly knew what she was about to do, her hungry gaze fixated onto the unsuspecting pirate who was too busy adding to his inebriation to sense the danger looming just behind him. Will watching Merwynn to creep closer to the man, her body ready to pounce with each silent step she took towards him as indescribable craving commanded her very senses, spurring her instincts as she was clearly hunting this man, who however couldn’t have been an easier prey. Neither noticing the nearing mermaid as she tiptoed across the floor, but as she suddenly came to a brief halt and crouched forth, Will seeing her claws to draw out, he was driven to action himself. Him dashing around the piled up cargo and just as a silent snarl like utterance escaped Wynn’s throat and she was about to charge at the man he caught her, using all his strength to wrench her backwards mid leap, and the resistance and the noise that ensued proved exactly how challenging holding back a hunger driven creature was.

Wynn’s enraged growls finally alerted the pirate as well, but he was still too out of it to realize the danger in full as he twirled around. To see Will struggling to restrain the writhing, seething mermaid, until startled by his sudden, hampering grip Wynn quickly wrenched herself free with notable force and lashed at Will. Not knowing it was him and clawed him in fury, the dark, bestial grimace however instantly disappearing from her mien once she realized her assailant to be Will. Her eyes dropping to take in the claw marks on his arm that had reopened his wound, while with a strained sigh he instead shot a grim look at the flabbergasted pirate, who in his astonishment dropped his tankard into the open barrel. Watching Will to next beckon towards the stairs, his fingers rising to press down to his bleeding arm which he however hid from the miscreant’s view.

“Leave. Or I’ll inform the captain you’ve been stealing from the reserves.”

If not the previous incident but Will’s somber delivery alone was enough to chase off the pirate. The buccaneer scampering away from them and running up the stairs with considerable agility taken how intoxicated he was, but once Will was alone with Wynn he let out a new sigh. Of frustration as took a look at his injury himself, to have known Wynn to react like that after he’d so abruptly grabbed her from behind, but what choice had he had when she’d been about to sink her teeth into the man? Wynn eyeing at him in confusion, lost as to why he was here and more importantly why he had stopped her.

“Will?”

Will felt shivers to dance across his skin as she said his name. Her never to have said it before, and hearing it made him feel somewhat…strange he had to admit, although he didn’t quite know why, until he recalled his indignation and this time around released an annoyed huff. The least scared or threatened himself as he glowered down at the claw marks on his arm while Wynn took a step closer to him, causing him to gasp unwillingly once her fingers just barely brushed over the fresh wound. Him however shifting himself out of her touch as raised his stern eyes up to her, demanding an explanation.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Will asked, actually a bit angry as eyed at the mermaid incredulously, as he couldn’t either believe her to have actually managed to get herself all the way here on her own. “Why did you leave the cabin?”

“I was hungry”, Merwynn stated. The truth that he already was very aware of, but that did little to rectify what had almost happened. Will only hoping the buccaneer to have been indeed too plastered to comprehend what he’d just seen or that he’d almost been killed, not to tell the rest of the crew, him shaking his head at the mermaid who clearly didn’t seem to grasp the seriousness of her succumbing to her predatory instincts.

“I realize that, but you cannot go around eating people! You almost killed him.”

“That was the intention”, Wynn retorted. Saying it as an another self-evidence where Will simply squinted at her in protest.

“You can’t, Wynn. Jack allowed you on board on the sole condition of you not bringing his men to harm, and if you as much as show your true nature to any of them he’ll go back on his word. I understand it is hard for you, but you need to remain in control until you’re all better.”

“You understand nothing!” Wynn exclaimed. The sudden defeated look deep in her fiery irises then bringing down some of Will’s aggravation even he was at first at odds with her flared temper, and once he then saw how she suddenly began to tremble, losing the support of her legs and with a distinct sway comparable to the drunken man’s she fell. Almost crashing to the floor had it not been her arm that shot out to take hold of a nearby barrel, Will sighing as he followed her to slowly drop down to sit onto the lowest step of the staircase, too agitated and starved to stand. Despite of her previous defiance and ire her expression now givenly dejected, miserable even. “I’m weak, Will. Fish does little to nothing to satisfy me, and I want to get stronger to get off this ship as soon as I can! This need, this hunger that compels me, this urge that drives my very being whether I want it or not…Feeling of remaining shackled to my own weakness while all of my senses are harrowing me to satiate my needs…It’s unbearable. You could never understand it. Never…”

**_The mating season…makes 'em more aggressive, even if 'em creatures weren't terrifying enough as they were. But when the heat starts…Ye better pray not to get in the way of 'em then._ **

As Will then recollected Gibbs’ words, what he’d told him about mermaids’ and their mating behaviour a few days ago he did then come to understand her better, despite of her beliefs. Her to have given in to her urges not because she hadn’t cared about his prohibitions about attacking anyone, but because she hadn’t been able to help herself. That despite of her efforts to lay low and steer clear of the men aboard this vessel she’d found the drive of her instincts too strong to go against, the mating season that only seemed to heighten such urges making matters worse. And when he then thought about it he had noticed her to appear more fretful lately, even she hadn’t actually showed it, it to have become at times hard for her to remain close to the crewmembers since their first venture outside. This explaining it all perfectly, and now more remorseful than annoyed Will sighed. Watching Wynn as she sat there, quivering, her arms wrapped around her torso to gain some control over her a moment ago but rampant senses that set such a jitter to her limbs. Before Will then could say anything her however raising her bent head and in a flash one of her hands had taken hold of his wrist and she jerked him over to her. Her features once more set into a stern visage as for the following dismay of the young man she pulled him lower so that his forearm was exposed to her, in shock of this abrupt act Will instantly yanking his arm back. However Wynn’s grasp of him too firm for him to be able to do else than watch as she used her other hand to rip a strip of cloth from her shirt before proceeded to tie it around his bleeding ulcer. Poorly yes, and not quite covering the wound as tightly as she should’ve, but still she bound the wound as she’d often observed him to dress her injuries. Once she was finished her at first keeping her eyes focused onto the bandage until she looked up to Will, ending the silence as her now fingertips trailed a lite path across the under of his raised arm.

“My intention was not to harm you. Only him.”

Will ran a stupefied hand over his forearm until his attention finally was freed from under Wynn’s guileless eyes, which had never looked this sincere while holding his. It striking a chord in him, reminding him of the girl she’d once been and whom had chosen not to kill him, until she assumed a usual type of rigid expression and averted her gaze. Finding not words to reply Will then sighing as soon bent over, admitting that at least she was being fully honest with him instead of pretending, picking Wynn up and raising her from the steps as took her into his arms. Despite of her managing to walk herself all the way to the hold deciding to carry her back to his cabin…whether it sat well with her or not.

“At least you’re finally sorry.”

Wynn’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t say I was, human.”

A genuine, amused smile devoid of that previous contrition made an appearance on Will’s lips at the sound of Wynn’s familiarly snappy, opposing response. Him taking it as a challenge as chose to tease her, risking her assumed vexation to turn into real anger that woud have her lash out on him again…As he knew she wouldn’t taken that previous, accentuated poignant edge to her voice she usually used whenever she wished to hide her to have been in fact taken by him.

“I know you are. Otherwise you would’ve torn my arm completely off just now.”

Will noticed Wynn to cast a somewhat scornful look at him. Her response causing his smile to widen. “I still can.”

“You could. But I hope you wouldn’t.”


End file.
